Glass 




03 






OUTLINES 



n 4,00 



MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY. 



A TEXT-BOOK 

HIGH SCHOOLS, SEMINARIES, AND 
COLLEGES. 



-V? BY 

P. V. N. MYERS, A.M., 

a 

PRESIL "NT OF BELMONT COLLEGE, OHIO : AUTHOR OF "REMAINS OF LOST EMPIRES' 
AND " OUTLINES OF ANCIENT HISTORY." 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY. 

1886. 



t^j 



*b 



*P <v 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by 

P. V. N. MYERS, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

Exchange 

Augustana College kiby. 

Sept. 28 1934 



J. S. Cushing & Co., Printers, Boston. 



V 

^ PREFACE. 



THIS work is a continuation of my Outlines of Ancient His- 
tory. The two books are alike in general plan, but the 
present volume is intended for pupils of somewhat maturer minds 
than those for whom the first book was written. 

Ueberweg's definition of History, that it is the unfolding of the 
essence of spirit, has, I perhaps ought to say, had much to do in 
determining the character of the work. It is under the influence 
of this conception that I have estimated the value of facts and 
judged of the significance of events. My aim has been to deal 
with the essential elements, not the accidental features, of the life 
of the race. The book, therefore, gives' prominence to the vir- 
tues, rather than the vices, of- men. It Concerns itself mainly with 
those phenomena and institutions which are the expression of the 
permanent tendencies of the developing spirit of humanity. 

The guiding idea mentioned has controlled the analysis of the 
subject-matter. The principles of grouping are the laws of historic 
development. Events have not, as a rule, been gathered under 
reigns or dynasties. 

The divisions and subdivisions of the subject being thus philo- 
sophical and natural, with cause and effect as the associating prin- 
ciple, the whole has unity and cohesion, and, readily impressing 
itself upon the memory of the reader, forms a permanent outline 
for his guidance in all further historical work. At times, the mate- 



iv PREFACE. 

rial is gathered about prominent personages, but only because these 
are the representatives of great principles or tendencies. 

With the analysis completed, my aim has been the expansion of 
this into a clear, continuous, and attractive narrative, — into a story 
that should at every point hold the attention and throughout sus- 
tain the interest of the reader. The infinite difficulty of giving 
proper perspective and artistic form to the work, on account of 
the very superabundance of the material to be dealt with, will be 
appreciated by all students of these periods of history. An honest 
effort, however, has been made to do this, considerable portions of 
the volume having been rewritten several times. The book has 
been kept within moderate compass and prevented from becoming 
a mere schedule of names and dates, only by the rigid adhesion to 
two rules. First, facts have been regarded as available and of 
value simply as they might be used to illustrate historic laws, prin- 
ciples, or tendencies. This rule has excluded a multitude of de- 
tails whose presence, instead of rendering clearer the vision, would 
simply tend to obscure the view. Second, from among many pos- 
sible illustrative facts, only the most striking or typical have been 
selected, and these have been presented with as much background 
and atmosphere as possible in limited space ; for simply to men- 
tion facts and not frame them, is to give the reader a page which 
will leave nothing but a blur upon the memory. 

Writing primarily for the student and the teacher, I have tried 
to keep ever before me the necessity of condensed and suggestive 
statement. My effort has been to lodge germs in the mind, not 
to transplant into it fully-developed ideas. Consequently, while 
the text is designed for memorizing by the pupil, it is also adapted 
to being made the basis of easy amplification by illustration and 
comment on the part of the teacher. 



PREFACE. v 

I have, of course, carefully avoided a controversial tone, and 
yet I have not thought I should conceal, nor have I concealed, 
my profound sympathy with the principles of religious toleration 
and of political democracy. Especially have I not thought that 
the impartiality which should characterize a work like the present 
forbade my endeavoring, by every art in my power, to foster in 
the mind of the young student a hatred of all forms of political 
exclusiveness and tyranny, and a hopeful and sympathetic interest 
in the institutions of self-government. 

I scarcely need to add that the book is not a political history, 
nor yet the history of any single element of civilization. It aims 
to blend in a single narrative accounts of the social, political, lit- 
erary, intellectual, and religious developments of the peoples of 
mediaeval and modern times, — to give in simple outline the story 
of civilization since the meeting, in the fifth century of our era, of 
Latin and Teuton upon the soil of the Roman Empire in the West. 

As the pupil is supposed to be familiar with United States his- 
tory before he comes to this text-book, I have referred to the 
affairs of our own country, only when necessary to show the influ- 
ence of the New World upon the Old. Nor have I attempted to 
give any connected account of the nations of Eastern Asia, for the 
double reason of lack of space, and because they lie so aside from 
the main currents of history, I could leave them out without omit- 
ting any essential feature of the story I had to tell. 

In the preparation of the book, I have not failed to refer to all 
the best authorities within my reach. From among the many 
works I have used, I desire to make special mention of the follow- 
ing, because it is their guidance I have mainly followed in treating 
the subjects with which they severally deal : Freeman's History of 
the Norman Conquest; Michaud's History of the Crusades; 



vi PREFACE. 

Bryce's The Holy Roman Empire ; Symonds's The Renaissance in 
Italy ; Green's History of the English People ; Motley's Rise of 
the Dutch Republic; Hallam's Constitutional History of England; 
Schuyler's Peter the Great; and Thiers 's The French Revolution. 

From among the numerous other works to which I am indebted, 
though in a less degree than to the above, I desire to name the 
following: Hallam's Middle Ages; Hodgkin's Italy and her In- 
vaders; Finlay's History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires ; 
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Lecky's His- 
tory of European Morals; Muir's Mahomet and Islam ; Osborn's 
Islam tender the Arabs ; Ockley's History of the Saracens ; Mon- 
tesquieu's The Spirit of laws; Lea's Superstition and Force ; 
Guizot's History of Civilization; Lea's Studies in Church His- 
tory; Milman's History of Latin Christianity ; Ranke's History 
of the Popes ; Alzog's Universal Church History ; Trench's Lec- 
tures on Mediaeval Church History ; Freeman's Histoi'ical Geog- 
raphy of Europe ; Draper's Intellectual Development of Europe ; 
Stubbs's Constitutional History of England; Bontaric's Le Regime 
Feodal; Johnson's The Normans in Europe; Mill's History of 
Chivalry ; Robertson's History of Charles V. ; Prescott's several 
histories ; Morgan's Ancient Society; Martin's and Kitchen's his- 
tories of France ; Seebohm's The Era of the Protestant Revolution 
and The Oxford Reformers of 1498 ; Baird's History of the Rise 
of the Huguenots; Fisher's History of the Reformation; Schiller's, 
Gardiner's, and Gindely's histories of the Thirty Years' War ; Ram- 
baud's History of Russia; Taine's History of the French Revolu- 
tion; Lamartine's History of the Girondists ; Lecky's History of 
England in the XVIIIth Century; Shaw's History of English 
Literature; May's Constitutional History of England; McCarthy's 
History of Our Own Times; and M tiller's Political History of 



PREFACE. vii 

Recent Times. These titles, together with the references occur- 
ring throughout the book, will, I believe, fairly indicate the sources 
whence I have drawn my material, and the authorities upon which 
I have relied. 

I wish also to acknowledge my deep obligation to the following 
friends for valuable aid. I am indebted in a very special way to 
Professor William F. Allen, of the University of Wisconsin, who 
was so kind as to read not only the greater part of my manuscript, 
but also the proof-sheets as they came from the press. Every 
part of the work is indebted to his scholarly criticism and his ex- 
cellent suggestions. To John M. Newton, Esq., Librarian of the 
Young Men's Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati, I am 
also under obligation for many favors. Nor would I forget to 
express my warm thanks to W. O. Robb, Esq., of Cincinnati, for 
his kindness in reading the proof-sheets, and in giving me on 
many points the benefit of his admirable literary judgment. 
Finally, I would express my obligation to Professor W. E. Coy, 
Principal of Hughes High School, Cincinnati, for valuable sugges- 
tions on special chapters of the book. 

A word respecting the progressive historical maps that embellish 
the work. It is to the courtesy of Professor E. A. Freeman, and 
the liberality of my publishers, that the book is indebted for these 
excellent and instructive charts. They are reproduced from Free- 
man's Historical Geography of Europe by special arrangement 
with Mr. Freeman effected through my publishers. 

P. V. N. M. 

Belmont College, College Hill, Ohio. 
December, 1885. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



General Introduction 



PART FIRST. — MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 
FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 
chap. (From the fall of Rome, a.d. 476, to the eleventh century.) 

I. Migration and Settlement of the Teutonic Tribes 13 

II. The Conversion of the Barbarians 28 

1. The Introduction of Christianity among the Different Tribes 28 

11. Development of the Monastic System 43 

III. Fusion of the Latin and Teutonic Peoples 49 

IV. The Roman Empire in the East 61 

V. Mohammed and the Saracens 77 

VI. Charlemagne and the Restoration of the Empire in the West. . . . 107 

VII. The Northmen 118 

1. Introductory 118 

II. The Danes in England 1 24 

in. Settlement of the Northmen in Gaul 134 

VIII. Rise of the Papal Power 136 

SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OP REVIVAL. 

(From the opening of the eleventh century to the discovery of America by 
Columbus, in 1492.) 

I. Feudalism and Chivalry 147 

1. Feudalism 147 

11. Chivalry 161 

II. The Normans 169 

1. The Normans at Home and in Italy 169 

11. The Norman Conquest of England 171 



x CONTENTS. 

CHAP. PAGE. 

III. The Crusades (1096-1273) 179 

1. Introductory : Causes of the Crusades 1 79 

II. The First Crusade (1096-1099) 187 

in. The Second Crusade (1 147-1 149) 200 

IV. The Third Crusade (1189-1192) 205 

v. The Fourth Crusade ( 1 202-1 204) 208 

vi. The Children's Crusade (121 2) 209 

vii. Close of the Crusades : their Results 214 

IV. Supremacy of the Papacy : Decline of its Temporal Power 222 

V. Conquests of the Turanian or Tartar Tribes 234 

VI. Growth of the Towns : the Italian City-Republics 245 

VII. The Revival of Learning 260 

VIII. Growth of the Nations : Formation of National Governments and 

Literatures 277 

I. England 278 

II. France 303 

III. Spain 317 

iv. Germany 322 

v. Russia 341 

vi- Italy 342 

VII. The Northern Countries 348 



PART SECOND. — MODERN HISTORY. 
Introduction 349 

THIRD PERIOD. — THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT 
REFORMATION. 

(From the discovery of America to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648.) 

I. The Beginnings of the Reformation under Luther 363 

II. The Ascendency of Spain 382 

1. Reign of the Emperor Charles V. (1519— 1556) 382 

11. Spain under Philip II. (1 556-1 598) 395 

III. The Tudors and the English Reformation (1485-1603) . . 400 

I. Introductory 400 

11. Reign of Henry VII. (1485-1509) 402 

III. England severed from the Papacy by Henry VIII. (1509- 

J 547) • 405 

IV. Changes in Creed' and Ritual under Edward VI. (1574- 

!553) 417 



CONTENTS. xi 

CHAP. PAGE. 

v. Reaction under Mary (1553-1558) 419 

VI. Final Establishment of Protestantism under Elizabeth 

(1558-1603) 424 

IV. The Revolt of the Netherlands : Rise of the Dutch Republic 

(1572-1609) 437 

V. The Huguenot Wars in France (1 562-1629) 457 

VI. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) 473 



FOURTH PERIOD. — THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL. 
REVOLUTION. 

(From the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, to the present time.) 

I. The Ascendency of France under the Absolute Government of 

Louis XIV. ( 1 643-1 71 5) 490 

II. England under the Stuarts: the English Revolution (1603-1714) 504 

1. The First Two Stuarts 504 

1. Reign of James the First (1 603-1 625) 504 

2. Reign of Charles the First (1625- 1649) 511 

II. The Commonwealth (1649-1660) 521 

III. The Restored Stuarts 530 

1. Reign of Charles the Second (1 660-1 685) 530 

2. Reign of James the Second (1 685-1 688) 535 

IV. The Orange-Stuarts 541 

1. Reign of William and Mary (1689-1702) 541 

2. Reign of Queen Anne (1 702-1 714) 545 

III. The Rise of Russia : Peter the Great (1 682-1 725) 549 

IV. The Rise of Prussia : Frederick the Great (1 740-1 786) 568 

V. The French Revolution (1 789-1 799) 577 

I. Causes of the Revolution; the States-General of 1789 ... 577 

11. The National or Constituent Assembly (1 789-1 791) 585 

ill. The Legislative Assembly ( 1 791-1792) 593 

iv. The National Convention (1 792-1 795) 599 

v. The Directory (1 795-1 799) 621 

VI. The Consulate and the First Empire; France since the Second 

Restoration 632 

I. The Consulate and the Empire (1 799-1815) 632 

11. France since the Second Restoration 651 

VII. Russia since the French Revolution 656 

VIII. German Freedom and Unity 669 

IX. The Liberation and Unification of Italy 680 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAP. PAGE. 

X. England in the nineteenth century 694 

1. Progress towards Democracy 695 

II. Expansion of the Principle of Religious Equality. ... ... 701 

in. Growth of the British Empire in the East 705 

Conclusion : The New Age 714 



OUTLINES 

OF 

MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY. 

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

Divisions of the Subject. — In a previous work we sketched 
briefly the affairs of men from the time that they first emerged 
from the obscurity of the past to the downfall of the Roman 
Empire in the West, a.d. 476. In the present volume we pro- 
pose to continue the narrative there begun, and bring the story 
down to our own day. It will be our aim constantly to direct 
special attention to the state and progress of the arts and sciences, 
of learning, literature, and society, that our sketch may not be a 
recital simply of the outer circumstances, but a history of the real 
inner life of the European peoples — for with them we shall be 
almost exclusively concerned — during the period under review. 

The fourteen centuries of history embraced in our survey are 
usually divided into two periods, — the Middle Ages, or the period 
lying between the fall of Rome and the discovery of America by 
Columbus in 1492, and the Modern Age, which extends from the 
latter event to the present time. 

The Middle Ages, again, naturally subdivide into two periods, — 
the Dark Ages and the Age of Revival ; while the Modern Age 
also falls into two divisions, — the Era of the Protestant Reforma- 
tion and the Era of the Political Revolution. We will indicate 
the limits and chief characteristics of each of these periods, 



2 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

in order that we may fix in mind the prominent landmarks of the 
vast region we are to traverse. 

Chief Characteristics of the Four Periods. —The Dark Ages, 
which embrace the years intervening between the fall of Rome 
and the opening of the eleventh century, are so called by way of 
special distinction on account of the rude and benighted state of 
society during this time. The events that mark the period are. 
the migration and settlement of the Teutonic tribes ; their con- 
version to Christianity; the fusion of the Latins and Teutons; 
the fortunes of the Roman Empire in the East ; the rise of the 
Saracens ; the restoration of the Roman Empire in the West by 
Charlemagne ; the expeditions and settlements of the Northmen ; 
the growth of the Papacy ; and the origin of Feudalism. 

The second period, the Age of Revival, begins with the opening 
of the eleventh century and ends with the ' discovery of America by 
Columbus in 1492. During all this time civilization was making- 
slow but sure advances ; social order was gradually triumphing 
over anarchy, and governments were becoming more regular ; the 
arts were being developed with increasing success ; trade and 
commerce were being gradually extended ; and knowledge was 
becoming more generally diffused. The last century of the period 
especially was marked by a great intellectual revival, by improve- 
ments, inventions, and discoveries, which greatly stirred men's 
minds and awakened them as from a sleep. It was the age of 
intellectual emancipation. Man came to know the truth about 
himself and the universe, and the truth made him free. The 
human spirit escaped from the thraldom of ignorance and super- 
stition, than which there is no more degrading or cruel bondage. 
The chief matters that will occupy our attention are, the culmi- 
nation and decline of the temporal power of the Papacy ; the 
enterprises of the Normans ; the Crusades ; the rise of the Free 
Cities ; and the revival of learning and the formation of national 
governments and literatures, which important political and intel- 
lectual movements heralded the approach of the Modern Age. 

The third period, the Era of the Reformation, embraces the 



CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 3 

sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth. It naturally 
followed the Age of Revival, for intellectual emancipation is sure to 
lead to religious reform and freedom. The period is characterized 
by the great religious movement known as the Reformation, and 
the tremendous struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism. 
Almost all the wars of the period were religious wars. The 
immediate issue of the Reformation was the freeing of Northern 
Europe from the despotic spiritual dominion of Rome ; its more 
distant result was or will be the securing of religious freedom to 
all the world ; that is, the recognition of the right of every man 
to hold, avow, and teach such views in regard to religious matters 
as may seem to him to be true. The chief events of the era are, 
the opening of the Western Hemisphere as the destined home of 
civil and religious liberty ; the great revolt under Luther against 
Rome ; the ascendency of the Catholic and despotic power of 
Spain ; the establishment of Protestantism in England during the 
Tudor period ; the struggle between the Protestant provinces of 
the Netherlands and their Catholic Spanish sovereigns ; the 
Huguenot wars in France ; and the Thirty Years' War in Germany, 
which was closed by the famous Peace of Westphalia in 1648. 
After this date the disputes and wars between parties and nations 
were political rather than religious in character. 

The fourth period, the Era of the Revolution, extends from the 
Peace of Westphalia to the present time. Though an age crowded 
with an infinite variety of events, and marked by the contention 
of many and diverse principles, it is nevertheless especially char- 
acterized by the great conflict between despotic and liberal prin- 
ciples of government, resulting in the triumph of democratic ideas ; 
that is, the doctrine that the people have a right to govern them- 
selves, as against the doctrine that certain so-called royal families 
have a divine right to rule, through a commission from God, such, 
for instance, as had the Hebrew kings. The most noteworthy 
matters of the period are, the ascendency of France under the 
absolute government of Louis XIV. ; the despotism of the Stuarts 
in England and the English Revolution ; the rise of the great 



4 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

despotic power of Russia; the growth of Prussia; the war of 
American Independence; the terrible upheaval of the French 
Revolution; and the emancipation and unification of Germany 
and of Italy. 

Having now made a general survey of the ground we are to 
traverse, having marked the successive stages of the progressive 
course of civilization, the three great steps in intellectual, religious, 
and political freedom which have carried mankind out of the 
darkness and bondage of the Dark Ages into the light and liberty 
of the present age, we must return to our starting-point, — the 
fall of Rome. 

Relation to World-History of the Fall of Rome.— The calamity 
which, in the fifth century, befell the Roman Empire in the West 
is sometimes spoken of as an event marking the extinction of 
ancient civilization. The treasures of the Old World are repre- 
sented as having been destroyed, and mankind as obliged to take 
a fresh start, — to lay the foundations of civilization anew. It was 
not so. All that was really valuable in the accumulations of 
antiquity escaped harm, and became sooner or later the possession 
of the succeeding ages. The catastrophe simply prepared the way 
for the shifting of the scene of civilization from the south to the 
north of Europe, simply transferred at once political power, and 
gradually social and intellectual preeminence, from one branch of 
the Aryan family to another, — from the Gra^co-Italic to the 
Teutonic. 

The event was not an unrelieved calamity, because fortunately 
the floods that seemed to be sweeping so much away were not the 
mountain torrent, which covers fruitful fields with worthless drift, 
but the overflowing Nile with its rich deposits. Over all the 
regions covered by the barbarian inundation a new stratum of 
population was thrown down, a new soil formed that was capable 
of nourishing a better civilization than any the world had yet 
seen. 

Or, to use the figure of Draper, we may liken the precipitation 
of the northern barbarians upon the expiring Roman Empire to 



GRJECO-ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 5 

the heaping of fresh fuel upon a dying fire ; for a time it burns 
lower, and seems almost extinguished, but soon it bursts through 
the added fuel, and flames up with redoubled energy and ardor. 

Relation of the Mediaeval to the Modern Age. — We are now 
in a position to understand the real relation of the Mediaeval to 
the Modern Age. The first was to civilization a period of recovery 
from interruption and disaster, — interruption and disaster that 
were really disguised blessings. It was a sort of spring-time, a 
germinal season, a period during which the seeds of Greek and 
Roman civilization, scattered everywhere by the wide extension of 
Roman power during the preceding era, were taking root in the 
good soil of the hearts and minds of a new race. 

During these centuries the arts, the sciences, the literatures, and 
the institutions that characterize the modern era took shape, and 
gave promise of what they were to become ; the leading modem 
nations grew into form, and the political divisions of Europe were 
more or less definitely outlined. In a word, the era bears the 
same relation to the Modern Age that the period of youth does 
to that of manhood. This conception of its real character as a 
germinal, formative period will tend to impress us with a proper 
sense of the importance of a careful study of its events and cir- 
cumstances. It affords the key to modern history. 

Elements of Civilization transmitted by Rome. — We must 
now notice what survived the catastrophe of the fifth century, 
what it was that Rome transmitted to the new race, the Teutonic, 
that was henceforth to be the guardian of the treasures of civiliza- 
tion. It was a rich bequest she made, a large part of which, 
however, had become hers through inheritance or through appro- 
priation by conquest. 

It will be convenient to consider what the northern or Teutonic 
nations received through Rome from the ancient world, under the 
following heads: i. Graeco-Roman civilization; 2. Christianity. 
We will speak of them separately. 

Grseco-Roman Civilization. — By the phrase " Graeco-Roman 
civilization," we mean that whole body of arts, sciences, philoso- 



6 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

phies, literatures, laws, manners, customs, ideas, and social arrange- 
ments, — everything, in a word, save Christianity (which we desire 
to speak of separately), that Greece and Rome, through the me- 
dium of the latter, gave to mediaeval and modern Europe. These 
things constitute what is called in history the classical element. 
Taken together, they were a valuable gift to the new northern race 
that was henceforth to represent civilization. 

From among the varied elements of this rich legacy of the 
elder to the younger world, we will select for special mention here 
only three things, — the idea of the Empire, the Roman law, and 
Grceco-Roman art and literature. 

The first of these may seem a very vague, shadowy thing ; but 
we shall see that this recollection of the great Roman State and 
its imperial glories had a most profound influence upon mediaeval 
and even later history. Men were constantly striving to set up in 
the world something like that old Roman Empire, whose memo- 
rials and legends had cast such a spell over them. Just as they 
strove to realize in their individual lives the ideal that Christianity 
held up, so did they in governmental matters strive to shape the 
world after the Roman model. The vast empire built up by 
Charlemagne, and the Holy Roman Empire of the later German 
princes, were simply attempted revivals of the old Roman Empire, 
— the fallen Dagon, as some one has said, set up again in his 
place. The Papacy, in the language of Hobbes, was but " the 
ghost of the deceased Roman Empire crowned and seated upon 
the grave thereof." 

This historic ghost cannot be ignored any more than the ghost 
in Shakespeare's drama of Hamlet. Like the ghost of the play, 
it will explain many things going on upon the political stage of 
Europe which would otherwise be wholly inexplicable. 

The Roman law-system, with its admirable principles and prac- 
tical ideas, exercised from the very first a great influence upon the 
rude legal forms, customs, and practices of the barbarians. 
Throughout a large part of Europe it came to form the ground- 
work of all legislation and jurisprudence, and everywhere its influ- 



CHRIST I AX IT Y. 



ence was felt upon statesman and jurist. " No European lawyer," 
says Palgrave, " has failed to profit by Rome's written wisdom." 

The stores of classical art and literature — such part of these 
as survived the disruption of the Empire — were destined to 
become a most important factor in the new civilization. It is 
true that the barbarian invaders of the Empire seemed at first 
utterly indifferent to these things ; that the masterpieces of the 
Greek artists were buried beneath the rubbish of sacked villas and 
cities, and the precious manuscripts of the ancient sages and 
poets suffered to lie neglected in the cellars and garrets of cathe- 
drals and monasteries. Nevertheless Greece and Rome — we 
shall learn it later — were the instructors of the Middle Ages. It 
was they that taught the hand of the mediaeval builder its cunning, 
and imparted to the thought of the mediaeval schoolman its sub- 
tlety. And it was the relics of Graeco-Roman antiquity, drawn 
from their various hiding-places by curious scholars, that created, 
towards the close of the mediaeval period, that enthusiasm for 
classical art and learning which resulted in what is known as the 
Renaissance or New Birth, — the herald of the Modern Age. 

It will appear hereafter, as we proceed with our narrative, how 
large a debt modern civilization owes to the preceding culture 
of ancient Greece and Rome. 

Christianity.— The religion which Rome gave to her con- 
querors was quite different from that taught by Christ and his 
Apostles. But all we need to notice now is that in giving this 
religion to the Teutonic nations, Rome gave them something 
which was destined to produce a profound influence upon all 
their future. It shaped all the events of their history. It 
moulded all their ideas and institutions. It informed all their 
literatures, and ennobled their architecture, their painting, and 
their sculpture. It covered Europe with monasteries, cathedrals, 
and schools. It abolished servitude, inspired the Crusades, and 
aided powerfully in the creation of Chivalry. It added to 
mediaeval history the chapter on the Papacy, and to modern that 
on the Reformation. It cast upon the Middle Ages the darkest 



8 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

shadows, yet lighted them up with the most splendid radiance. 
It occasioned wars and persecutions without number, yet blessed 
Europe with the Truce of God. 

In a word, it has so colored the whole life, and so informed 
all the institutions of the European peoples, that their history is 
very largely a story of the fortunes and influences of this religion, 
which, first going forth from Semitic Judaea, was given to the 
younger world by the missionaries of Rome. 

The Teutons. — In the foregoing paragraphs we have named 
some of the chief elements of civilization which the ancient world 
through Rome gave to the mediaeval and modern. We must now 
see what the Teutons, who became the possessors of all these 
accumulations of the past, contributed to this world-treasure, to 
this ever-growing thing that we call civilization. 

The Teutons were poor in those things in which the Romans 
were rich. They had neither arts, nor sciences, nor philosophies, 
nor literatures. But they had something better than all these ; 
they possessed the essential elements of a virtuous and robust man- 
hood. And it was because of this, because of their personal worth, 
that unto them the promise had been given that their seed should 
become great nations — that the future should be theirs. 

If we should analyze this character of the Teutonic peoples 
which we praise so highly, we would find in it at least three promi- 
nent traits of which we ought at this time to take special notice ; 
namely, capacity for civilization, love of personal freedom and 
independence, and reverence for womanhood. We will say just a 
word respecting each of these, in order to place them distinctly 
before our minds. 

Their Capacity for Civilization. — We cannot better illustrate 
the capacity for civilization of the Teutonic nations than by con- 
trasting them with the Turanian peoples, 1 as for instance the 

1 This intimated incapacity for culture of the Turanian race finds two 
marked exceptions in the case of the Accadians of ancient and the Magyars 
or Hungarians of modern times. Nevertheless, the verdict of general history is, 
that the Turanians, as a race, are without political, scientific, or literary capacity. 



THE TEUTONS' LOVE OF PERSONAL FREEDOM. 9 

Turks. These last-named folk have been in contact with Euro- 
pean civilization for centuries, but have shown themselves utterly 
incapable of profiting by such association, being wholly insensible 
to the influence of the superior culture of the European nations. 

The Teutons fortunately belonged to a progressive and civiliz- 
able race. They came of good stock. They had back of them 
the push of a strong and noble ancestry. In the process of time 
their open and susceptible nature appropriated whatever was good 
— and unfortunately much that was not good — in the civilization 
they had overthrown. It was this quality in the Teutonic con- 
querors, this boundless capacity for growth, for culture, for civili- 
zation, which saved the countries of the West from the sterility 
and barbarism reserved for those of the East that were destined to 
be overrun and taken possession of by the Turanian hordes. 

Their Love of Personal Freedom. — The love of the Teutons 
for personal freedom is noticed by the old Latin writers. They 
could not even bear to have the houses of their villages set close 
together. "They dwell scattered and separate," says Tacitus, "as 
a spring, a meadow, or a grove may chance to invite them." The 
walled cities of the Romans they regarded as prisons. There were 
no towns in Germany before the eighth century, save a few places 
founded by the Romans along the Rhine and Danube. This same 
feeling of independence appears again in the relation sustained by 
the German warriors to their chief. They followed their chosen 
leader as companions and equals. The chief's power was ex- 
tremely limited. " The general," says the Latin writer just quoted, 
" commands less through the force of authority than of example." 
And again we see the same independent spirit expressed in their 
assemblies of freemen, in which meetings all matters of public 
interest were debated, disapproval being manifested by a general 
murmur, and approval by the clashing of javelins and spears. 

This sentiment of the Teutons determined in a large measure 
the nature of the institutions which they established upon the soil 
of the conquered Empire. It was this element in their character 
which led them, influenced, however, by Roman customs and 



10 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

forms, to set up, in all the countries of which they took possession, 
that peculiar form of government known as Feudalism, — an or- 
ganization allowing a great amount of personal independence 
among its members. In this same trait of the Teutonic disposition 
lay also the germ of representative government ; for from the gen- 
eral assemblies of the free Teutonic warriors beneath the forests of 
Germany may probably be traced the origin of the parliaments of 
modern Europe. Furthermore, in this characteristic of the Teu- 
tonic spirit, in this sentiment of individualism, this idea that a man 
has a right to himself, lay hidden the germ of Protestant (or Teu- 
tonic) Christianity. 

Their Reverence for Womanhood. — A feeling of respect for 
woman characterized all the northern or Teutonic peoples. 
Tacitus says of the Germans that they deemed something sacred 
to reside in woman's nature. This sentiment guarded the purity 
and sanctity of the home. In their high estimation of the sacred- 
ness of the family relation, the barbarians stood in marked con- 
trast with the Romans. All students, ancient as well as modern, 
of the declining Roman Empire admit that Rome fell because of 
her vices, and that most prominent among these were those 
which, degrading woman, destroy the sanctity of the family life. 
But the Teutons had preserved religiously those ideas and senti- 
ments which ruled the early Aryan home, which traditions the 
Romans, as well as the Greeks before them, had undervalued and 
lost. Now in bringing among the peoples of the corrupt and 
decaying Empire the sentiment of which we speak, the barbarians 
contributed a most important element to European civilization. 
Strengthened by Christianity, 1 it aided powerfully in giving birth 
to Chivalry, an institution which, as we shall see, colored all the 
events of the later mediaeval centuries and gave to modern civil- 
ization some of its loftiest ideals. It is only among the Teutonic 
nations, or among peoples that have felt their influence, that the 
family is the actual unit of society, and woman the real compan- 

1 Although monasticism certainly degraded woman, it cannot be doubted 
that the general influence of Christianity has been to elevate and dignify her. 



CELTS, SLAVONIANS, AND OTHER PEOPLES. 11 

ion and equal of man. Our own sacred word home, as well as all 
that it represents, comes from our Teutonic ancestors. 

Celts, Slavonians, and Other Peoples. —Having noticed the 
Romans and the Teutons, the two most prominent and important 
of the peoples that present themselves to us at the time of the 
downfall of Rome, if we now name the Celts, the Slavonians, the 
Persians, the Arabians, and the Turanian or Tartar tribes of Asia, 
we shall have under view the chief actors in the drama of mediaeval 
and modern history. 

At the commencement of the mediaeval era the Celts were in 
front of the Teutons, clinging to the western edge of the European 
continent, and engaged in a bitter contest with these latter peo- 
ples, which, in the antagonism of England and Ireland, was des- 
tined to extend itself to our own day. 

The Slavonians were in the rear of the Teutonic tribes, press- 
ing them on even as the Celts in front were struggling to resist 
their advance. These peoples, progressing but little beyond the 
pastoral state before the Modern Age, will play only an obscure 
part in the events of the mediaeval era, but in the course of the 
modern period will assume a most commanding position among 
the European nations. 

The Persians were in their old seats beyond the Euphrates, 
maintaining there what is called the New Persian Empire, the 
kings of which, until the rise of the Saracens in the seventh 
century, were the most formidable rivals of the Emperors of Con- 
stantinople. 

The Arabians were hidden in their deserts ; but in the seventh 
century we shall see them, animated by a wonderful religious 
fanaticism, issue from their peninsula, and begin a contest with 
the Christian nations of the East and West which, in its varying 
phases, was destined to fill a large part of the mediaeval period. 

The Tartar tribes were buried in Central Asia. They will 
appear late in the eleventh century, proselytes for the most part 
of Mohammedanism ; and, as the religious ardor of the Semitic 
Arabians grows cool, we shall see the Crescent upheld by these 



12 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

zealous converts of another race, and finally, in the fifteenth 
century, placed by the Turks upon the dome of St. Sophia in 
Constantinople. 

As the Middle Ages draw to a close, the remote nations of East- 
ern Asia will gradually come within our circle of vision ; and, as 
the Modern Age dawns, we shall catch a glimpse of new continents 
and strange races of men beyond the Atlantic. 



Part I. 

MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

(FROM THE FALL OF ROME, A.D. 476, TO THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.) 



CHAPTER I. 

MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE TEUTONIC 
TRIBES. 

Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (a.d. 493-554). — As soon as 
Odoacer, the leader of the Herulian mutiny, had dethroned 
Augustulus, the last of the Western Roman Emperors, he seized 
upon, and divided among his followers, the estates of the wealthy 
Italian nobles. His feeble government lasted seventeen years, 
when it was brought to a close by the invasion of the Ostrogoths 
(Eastern Goths), under Theodoric, the greatest of their chiefs. 

The Ostrogoths came from Pannonia, on the upper Danube. 
They were, at this time, nominal allies of the Eastern Emperor, 
and had been assigned the duty of guarding the Danubian frontier. 
But they were very troublesome and costly friends ; the Emperor 
being obliged to purchase their good-will with constant gifts of 
land and money. At last Theodoric asked of the Emperor per- 
mission to lead an expedition to the conquest of Italy. " If I 
fall" — thus he urged his suit — "you will be relieved of a trouble- 
some friend ; if, with the divine permission, I succeed, I shall 
govern in your name, and to your glory, the Roman senate, and 



14 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

the part of the republic delivered from slavery by my victorious 
arms." 

The Emperor granted the permission sought; and the entire 
Ostrogothic nation — warriors, women, and children — set out for 
Italy. It was a migration rather than a military expedition. Italy 
was not simply to be plundered, as when Alaric led the Visigoths 
over the Alps, but to be occupied as a permanent possession ; so 
the trains of the migrating nation were lengthened by their flocks 
and herds, and by clumsy wagons loaded with such property as 
make up the riches of a roving people. 

From their seats on the Danube to the northern plains of Italy 
was a long and broken march of seven hundred miles. The snow 
and cold of a winter of unusual severity, and hostile bands of 
Burgundians and Sarmatians, impeded and harassed their march. 
But the genius and daring of Theodoric, who animated his fol- 
lowers with his own intrepid spirit, and encouraged them with 
prospects of the rich booty that awaited them, surmounted every 
obstacle ; and in the spring, a,d. 490, the inhabitants of Italy 
were again startled by the apparition of a Gothic host issuing from 
the defiles of the Alps. 

Odoacer and his followers made an heroic defence of their 
dominions. But after a struggle of three years, during which time 
Italy suffered all the evils incident to barbarian warfare, the contest 
was ended by the surrender of Ravenna, in which city Odoacer 
had entrenched himself. The conqueror of Rome was treacher- 
ously murdered by Theodoric, who now assumed the sovereignty 
of all Italy, and, in fulfilment of the promises he had made his 
followers, distributed among them one third of the land of the 
peninsula. 

The reign of Theodoric lasted thirty-three years, — years of 
such quiet and prosperity as Italy had not known since the happy 
era of the first two Antonines. The king made good his famous 
declaration that his reign should be such that "the only regret of 
the prople should be that the Goths had not come at an earlier 
period." During this auspicious time the Goths increased in 




EUROPE 



IN THE REIGN OF 

THEODORIC 

C A. D. 500. 



| | Roman Empire 
\ 1 Teutonic Settlements 
] Celts 




Struther S ,S e rvo53 4Co.,£ugi's,N.y. 



KINGDOM OF THE OSTROGOTHS. 15 

numbers until the census of the nation amounted to at least 
i, 000,000 souls. 

Notwithstanding the barbarians were scattered everywhere 
throughout the country, and were in intimate relations with the 
Italians, they did not blend with them. As the Spartans held in 
contempt the learning and refinement of the Athenians, so did 
these rude warriors despise the schools and manners of the more 
cultured race among whom they had thrust themselves as con- 
querors and rulers. Theodoric expressed his contempt of their 
schools by declaring that "the child who had trembled at a rod, 
would never dare to look upon a sword." The king himself had 
passed his youth as a hostage at the court of Constantinople ; 
but refusing to profit by the instruction of his teachers, gave him- 
self entirely to such athletic sports as hunting and riding, which 
he thought the only worthy employments of the prince of a war- 
like race. He managed to attach his name to such papers as 
required his signature, by the device of a stencil. 

The dominions of Theodoric, gradually extended by conquests 
and negotiations, finally embraced the fairest provinces formerly 
ruled by the Western Roman Emperors. Italy, Sicily, part of 
Southern Gaul, and the countries between the head of the Adriatic 
and the Danube, acknowledged the authority of the Gothic king. 
And such was the reputation of Theodoric for wisdom and fair- 
ness, that the disputes of all the neighboring Teutonic nations 
were referred to him for arbitration. The last years of his reign, 
however, were embittered by religious quarrels, and stained by his 
acts of cruelty and persecution. 

The kingdom established by the rare abilities of Theodoric 
lasted only twenty-seven years after his death, which occurred 
a.d. 527. Justinian, Emperor of the East, taking advantage of 
that event, sent his generals, first Belisarius and afterwards Narses, 
to deliver Italy from the rule of the barbarians. The last of 
the Ostrogothic kings fell in battle, an end befitting the last 
descendant of a martial race ; and Italy, with her fields ravaged 
and her cities in ruin — for the Goths, loath to give up the conn- 



16 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

try, made a desperate resistance — was reunited to the Empire 
(a.d. 554). Such of the barbarians as did not seek adventure in 
other lands were gradually absorbed into the native population. 

Kingdom of the Visigoths (a.d. 415-71 i). — The Visigoths 
(Western Goths) were already in possession of Spain and Southern 
Gaul when the Roman Empire in the West was brought to an end 
by the act of Odoacer and his companions. The name of Euric 
(a.d. 466-483) holds the same place of preeminence among their 
kings as does that of Theodoric among the Ostrogothic princes. 
His fame was spread not only throughout Europe, but even reached 
some of the most distant countries of Asia. 

Being driven south of the Pyrenees by Clovis, king of the 
Franks, the Visigoths held possession of Spain until the beginning 
of the eighth century, when the Saracens crossed the Strait of 
Gibraltar, destroyed the kingdom of Roderic, the last of the Gothic 
kings, and established throughout the country the authority of the 
Koran (a.d. 711). The Visigothic Empire when thus overturned 
had lasted nearly three hundred years. During this time the con- 
querors had mingled with the old Romanized inhabitants of Spain, 
so that in the veins of the Spaniard of to-day is blended the blood 
of Iberian, Celt, Roman, and Teuton. 

Kingdom of the Burgundians (a.d. 443-534). — Towards the 
middle of the fifth century, the Burgundians, who were near kins- 
men of the Goths, acquired, with the permission of the Romans, a 
permanent settlement in the territory now known as Savoy ; and, 
at length, by force of arms or by peaceful negotiations, possessed 
themselves of all the southeastern portion of what is now the 
Republic of France, as well as considerable tracts of Western 
Switzerland. A portion of this ancient dominion still retains, from 
these German settlers, the name of "Burgundy." The Burgun- 
dians had barely secured a foothold in Gaul before they came in 
collision with the Franks on the north, and were reduced by 
Clovis and his sons to a state of dependence upon the northern 
kingdom. 

Kingdom of the Vandals (a.d. 439-533). — About half a century 



KINGDOM OF THE VANDALS. 17 

before the fall of Rome, the Vandals, crowded from their seats in 
Pannonia, traversed Gaul and Spain, passed the Strait of Gibraltar, 
overran in a few years all Northern Africa, and made the city of 
Carthage the capital of the kingdom which they set up in those 
regions (a.d. 439). 

These Vandal conquerors were animated by a more destructive 
energy than any other of the Germanic tribes that took part in the 
subversion of the Roman Empire. Their very name has passed into 
all languages as the synonym of wanton destruction and violence. 
The terror of this name they spread throughout the Mediterranean 
countries. Their pirate ships swept all the waters between the Pillars 
of Hercules and the Nile. They carried their horses with them in 
their ships, and making a descent upon an unprotected coast, 
mounted the animals, scoured the country, gathered the booty 
into their vessels, and were away before an alarm could be 
sounded. Even walled cities did not escape the audacious 
attacks of these " Vikings of the South." In another volume we 
have told how the Vandal King Genseric bore in triumph down 
the Tiber the heavy spoils of Rome herself. 

Genseric was a worthy representative of his race. Reckless and 
daring, he seems to have left to chance to determine whither his 
expeditions should be directed. It is said that, when about to sail, 
his answer to the inquiries of his pilots as to the direction in which 
they should guide the fleet, was, " Go with the winds ; God will 
thus direct us against the guilty." 

Nor did the Vandal pirates content themselves with plundering 
excursions. They emulated the ambition and imitated the con- 
quests of the Carthaginians, whose ancient capital they had made 
their own. Besides conquering all Northern Africa, they seized 
Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles. And not satisfied with 
reducing their enemies to political servitude with the heavy blows 
of their swords, they endeavored to subjugate them spiritually 
with the same weapon. Being Arian Christians, they persecuted 
with furious zeal and unrelenting cruelty the orthodox party, the 
followers of Athanasius. No cruder persecution stains the pages 



18 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

of history than that waged by these semi- Christian Vandals against 
the African Catholics. 

But vengeance was at hand. The Vandals had but just effected 
the conquest of Sardinia, when Zano, the general who had accom- 
plished this undertaking, was sent for in haste to return to the 
defence of Africa. The Emperor Justinian had sent his general 
Belisarius to drive the barbarians from Africa, and to restore that 
province to the bosom of the true Catholic Church. The expedi- 
tion was successful, and Carthage and the fruitful fields of Africa 
were restored to the Empire, after having suffered the insolence of 
the barbarian conquerors for the space of one hundred years. 

At the time of their conquest by Belisarius the entire number of 
Vandals in Africa was, according to some authorities, about half a 
million. Many of them now enlisted in the army of the East- 
ern Emperor, while others engaged in different enterprises the 
hazardous nature of which struck their savage imagination. Those 
remaining in the country were gradually absorbed by the old Roman 
population, and after a few generations no certain trace of the 
barbarian invaders could be detected in the physical appearance, 
the language, or the customs of the inhabitants of the African coast. 
The Vandal nation had disappeared ; the name alone remained. 

The Franks under the Merovingians (a.d. 486-752). — The 
Franks, who were destined to give a new name to Gaul and form 
the nucleus of the French nation, made their first settlement west 
of the Rhine towards the close of the third century, about two 
hundred years before the fall of Rome. The name was the com- 
mon designation of a number of Teutonic tribes that had formed 
a confederation while dwelling beyond the Rhine. The Salian 
Franks were the leading tribe of the League, and it was from the 
members of their most powerful family, who traced their descent 
from Merovseus, a legendary sea-king of the Franks, that leaders 
were chosen by the free vote of all the warriors. 

After the downfall of Rome, Clovis, then chief of the Franks, 
conceived the ambition of erecting a kingdom upon the ruins of 
the Roman power. He attacked Syagrius, the Roman governor of 



THE FRANKS UNDER THE MEROVINGIANS, 19 

Gaul, and at Soissons gained a decisive victory over his forces 
(a. p. 486). Thus was destroyed forever in Gaul that Roman 
authority established among its barbarous tribes more than five 
centuries before by the conquests of Julius Coesar. The victorious 
Clovis now set up his court at Lutetia, a small mud-built town of 
a Celtic tribe known as the Parish, whence the name of Paris. 

Clovis in a short time extended his authority over the greater 
part of Gaul, reducing to the condition of tributaries the various 
Teutonic tribes that had taken possession of different portions of 
the country. Success won for him friends on every hand. The 
bishops of the Christian Church, which had been established in 
Gaul during the Roman period, espoused with all the weight of 
their authority, which was not small, — for in that superstitious age 
they had acquired a wonderful ascendency over the minds of the 
barbarians, — the cause of Clovis, hoping in return to receive his 
support in their contest with the yet unconverted enemies of the 
Church. In this they were not disappointed, as we shall see a 
little later. 

Furthermore, the Emperor at Constantinople sent the Frankish 
king the purple robe and other insignia of a Roman consul, 
thereby clothing him with all the authority of the imperial govern- 
ment. Clovis in accepting these became the lieutenant or viceroy 
of the Eastern Emperor only in name ; his authority was really as 
untrammeled and absolute as that of the most independent prince. 
But this formal recognition of the sovereignty of the court at Con- 
stantinople, which during all this period was acknowledged by 
almost all the German chiefs of the West, while it amused the 
Eastern Emperor, and laid no burdens or restrictions upon the 
barbarian princes, rather strengthened the authority of the latter 
among their own people, and especially among the former subjects 
of the Empire, who still reverenced the name of Rome, and looked 
upon the Emperor and those clothed with his delegated authority, 
with an almost superstitious veneration. 

But though his acknowledged dependence upon the Eastern 
Emperor did not abridge the authority of the Frankish king, the 



20 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK' AGES. 

customs and regulations of the barbarians themselves so restricted 
the power of their chief that he by no means exercised an unre- 
strained control over the tribes at whose head he was placed. 
Indeed, Clovis himself ruled rather by the weight of influence and 
example than by authority. This relation of the Frankish chief to 
his followers is illustrated by the familiar story of the " vase of 
Soissons." Upon the division at Soissons of some spoils, Clovis 
seeking to have set aside in his favor a rule of the barbarians 
whereby everything was always distributed by lot, asked that he 
might have placed at his disposal a beautiful vase taken from the 
Cathedral at Rheims. The army assented, save one of the war- 
riors, who, unwilling to yield his individual rights, lifted his battle- 
axe and struck the vase, at the same time telling the king that he 
should have nothing but what fell to him by lot. Although Clovis 
afterwards avenged himself upon the rude soldier, at that time he 
dared not manifest any resentment towards him, for he had simply 
asserted what was the undoubted right and liberty of every Frank. 

Upon the death of Clovis (a.d. 511) his extensive dominions 
were divided equally among his four sons, according to the Salian 
law of inheritance. The natural consequences of such a parcel- 
ing out of the supreme authority soon followed, and the king- 
dom was rent with dissensions and wars. About a century and a 
half of discord followed the energetic rule of Clovis, by the end 
of which time the princes of the house of Merovseus had become 
so feeble and inefficient that they were contemptuously called fai- 
neants, or " do-nothings," and the ambitious members of other 
families that had grown rich and influential through their connec- 
tion with the government were encouraged to aspire to the royal 
dignity. 

Now the Frank monarchy at this time was composed of two 
members, an eastern and a western division, known respectively 
as Austrasia and Neusfria, whicK represented in a vague way the 
Germany and France of later tirfaes. The eastern division, as 
was natural on account of its position, was more thoroughly 
Teutonic than the western, where th^e Roman element predomi- 



THE FRANKS UNDER THE MEROVINGIANS. 21 

nated. Naturally there existed an irreconcilable antagonism 
between the two members of the Frankish state. At the head 
of each division was a high officer of the crown known as Mayor 
of the Palace. After a long contest the Mayors of the eastern 
division gained the ascendency, pushed aside the weak Merovingian 
kings, and gave to the Frankish monarchy a new royal line, — 
the Carolingian. 

It required the genius, the achievements, and the ambition 
of three successive princes, Pepin of Heristal, Charles Martel, 
and Pepin the Short, father, son, and grandson, to lift the aspiring 
Austrasian family to fully acknowledged royal dignity, although the 
first Pepin by a great victory over the Neustrians a.d. 687 
secured such an ascendency in the monarchy, that he thenceforth 
really exercised royal power, notwithstanding a descendant of 
Merovseus still sat as a shadow-king upon the throne. 

Charles, son of Pepin, by his genius, energy, and splendid services, 
raised to a more secure eminence the growing fortunes of the family. 
Never did ambition have presented to it a rarer opportunity. 

The Saracens, of whom we shall tell in a following chapter, 
having reduced the East. Northern Africa, and Spain, had crossed 
the Pyrenees, and were threatening the subjugation of all Europe. 
The eyes of everybody were turned to Charles as the only one 
whose arm was powerful enough to stay the insolent progress of 
the Arab hosts. 

Charles gathered his warriors, and on the field of Tours in 
Southern France inflicted upon the invaders a most memorable 
defeat, thus saving Europe from the Mohammedan yoke (a.d. 
732). From his exploits on this famous field Charles acquired 
the surname Martel, " the Hammer," and gained such renown and 
ascendency that he, like his father before him, became virtually 
the king of the Franks, although the honor of bearing that title 
was reserved for his son Pepin, who, in a way that will here- 
after be explained, became the first in name of the Carolingian 
kings (a.d. 752). 

At this point we must turn from tracing the growing power 



22 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK A GES. 

of the Franks, in order to follow the fortunes of other invaders 
of the Empire. 

Kingdom of the Lombards (a.d. 568-774). — The circum- 
stances attending the establishment of the Lombards in Italy 
were very like those marking the settlement of the Ostrogoths. 
The Lombards (Longobardi), so called either from their long 
beards, or their long battle-axes, came from the region of the 
Upper Danube, where they had long been in the employ of the 
Eastern Emperor, engaged in a war of extermination against 
the Gepidae. From this enterprise, which well suited their fierce 
and martial character, they turned to the conquest of Italy. This 
country, it will be borne in mind, had but recently been delivered 
from the hands of the Ostrogoths by the lieutenants of the Eastern 
Emperor. 

In just such a march as the Ostrogoths had made nearly a 
century before, the Lombard nation now crossed the Alps and 
descended upon the plains of Italy. After many years of des- 
perate fighting, they wrested from the Empire all • the peninsula, 
save the great cities of Ravenna, Rome, Naples, and some other 
places of less importance, and set up in the country a monarchy 
which lasted almost exactly two centuries. 

The Lombards were, after the Vandals, the fiercest of the tribes 
that fell upon the Roman provinces, and their conquests were 
attended with the most appalling slaughters and cruelties. Insen- 
sibly, however, the softening influences of the civilization with 
which they came in contact in Italy modified their rough manners 
and tamed their fierce dispositions, so that in process of time the 
rude invaders took on a quite different character, and became the 
generous patrons of art and learning. 

The government they established was a sort of feudal monarchy, 
the country being parceled out among thirty dukes, who stood in 
the relation of vassals to the king. When they entered Italy they 
were Christians of the Arian sect; but afterwards they became 
converts to the orthodox faith of the Roman Church, and Pope 
Gregory I. bestowed upon the Lombard king an iron crown, 



THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST OF BRITAIN. 23 

made, so it was declared, from one of the nails of the cross upon 
which Christ suffered. 

The kingdom of the Lombards was destroyed by Charlemagne, 
the greatest of the Frankish rulers, who conquered Desiderius, the 
last of the long-bearded kings, and received from the hands of the 
Pope the iron crown that had been forged for the Lombard 
chief (a.d. 774). 

The rule of the Lombard princes thus came to an end ; but the 
blood of the invaders had by this time become intermingled with 
that of the former subjects of the Roman Empire, so that through- 
out all that part of the peninsula which is still called Lombardy 
after them, the people at the present day reveal, in the light hair 
and fair features which distinguish them from the inhabitants of 
Southern Italy, their partly German origin. 

The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain. — In the fifth century of 
our era, being then engaged in her death struggle with the 
barbarians, Rome withdrew her legions from Britain, in order to 
protect Italy. Thus that province was left exposed to the attacks 
of the fierce Celts of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as to 
the depredations of the Anglo-Saxon corsairs, who were now 
vexing the coasts of the northern seas. 

During the long occupation of Britain by the Romans the 
dwellers of the cities had become quite thoroughly Romanized, 
while the inhabitants of the country had clung to their ancient 
customs and manners. Hence, straightway upon the departure of 
the Roman soldiers, two parties sprang up, one composed of the 
inhabitants of the towns, who desired to retain those arts and 
customs introduced by the conquerors, the other comprising the 
rural population, who wished the nation to return to the ways of 
their ancestors and the ancient order of things. With counsels 
thus divided, no effective measure of resistance could be concerted 
against the foes that now attacked the deserted provincials by 
land and sea. 

The untamed tribes of Wales issued from their mountain strong- 
holds and harried the country all about ; the Picts made plunder- 



24 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

ing raids over the Wall of Hadrian in the north ; the Irish Celts 
descended in their piratical crafts upon the western, and the 
German buccaneers upon the eastern shores of the island. 

In this extremity of affairs Ambrosius, the leader of the Roman 
party, is said to have appealed for aid to the Roman governor of 
Gaul, picturing the condition of his unfortunate countrymen in 
these terms : " The barbarians drive us into the sea ; the sea 
throws us back upon the swords of the barbarians ; and we have 
only the hard choice of perishing by the sword or by the waves." 
The appeal, if ever made, was unavailing, for the Roman legions 
were just then battling with the terrible hosts of Alaric and Attila, 
and could extend no help. 

The distressed Britons were driven to what proved a fatal device. 
They determined to make friends of a part of their foes by means 
of bribes in land and money, and then turn these against the rest 
of their enemies. The German pirates were gained over by 
the means suggested. Hengest and Horsa, two half legendary 
Jutish chiefs, were the leaders of the first bands that came 
(a.d. 449). They were given as a base of operations the Isle of 
Thanet, at the mouth of the Thames, and the Picts were soon 
driven back into their northern fastnesses. Reports of the settle- 
ment, and glowing accounts of the richness of the soil and the 
delightfulness of the climate of the new land, caused fresh ship- 
loads of the kinsmen of the colonists to join them. The new 
immigrants were Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, tribes of very near 
kin, that came from Jutland and the country along the lower 
courses of the Elbe and the Weser. 

The Britons became alarmed at the increasing swarms of ships 
and men, and, when too late, realized that they had made a grave 
mistake in giving these fierce warriors a foothold in their country. 
They now, either through deliberate purpose or because the num- 
ber of the strangers had become so great that they were not able 
to make good their pledges to them, withheld promised lands and 
provisions. Thereupon the new-comers resolved to help them- 
selves. They attacked the Britons, overthrew them in a terrible 



THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST OF BRITAIN. 25 

battle, and began to take possession of the island. We say 
began, for neither the generation that commenced the work of 
subjugating the island, nor yet the three succeeding ones, saw the 
conquest nearly effected. The advance of the invaders was dis- 
puted foot by foot, and a hundred and fifty years passed away 
before the Teutons had secured possession of even the eastern 
half of what now forms England. No other province of the 
Roman Empire made such determined and heroic resistance 
against the barbarians. Up to the close of the sixth century — 
after that date the struggle grew less savage and unrelenting — so 
bitter and desperate was the contest that the provincials were 
either exterminated or driven bodily westward. Almost every 
trace of Roman civilization was obliterated. The Christian re- 
ligion, which had been introduced during the Roman sway, was 
virtually swept away, and Teutonic England again fell back into 
the savagery and paganism in which Julius Caesar had found its 
tribes six hundred years before. 

There is no more touching story in all history than that which 
tells how our barbarian ancestors dispossessed the Britons of their 
fair island, and drove them among the mountains of Wales or 
across the water to other lands. 1 It is to this period of desperate 
struggle that the famous King Arthur belongs. The legends that 
have gathered about the name of this national hero are mostly 
mythical ; yet it is probable that he had a real existence, and that 
his name is that of the most valiant of the Celtic chiefs who 
battled so long and heroically against the pagan invaders. 

Although the conquerors of Britain belonged, as we have 
learned, to three Teutonic tribes — the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes 
— they all passed among the Celts under the name of Saxons, 
and among themselves, after they began to draw together into a 
single nation, under that of Angles, whence the name England 
(Angle-land). 

By the close of the sixth century the invading bands had set up 

1 Many of the hard-pressed Britons fled across the English Channel to the 
adjacent shores of France, and gave name to the French province of Brittany, 



26 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

in the conquered parts of the island eight or nine, or perhaps 
more, kingdoms, 1 among which three, Northumbria, Mercia, and 
Wessex by name, enjoyed a sort of preeminence, and formed the 
centres about which the smaller states tended to group them- 
selves. For the space of two hundred years there was an almost 
perpetual strife among these leading states for supremacy, the 
king first of one and then of another forcing from one or both of 
the others a more or less perfect acknowledgment of his over- 
lordship. Finally Egbert, King of Wessex, whose ambitious pro- 
jects were favored by a growing sense of the advantages of a 
national union, and by the fear occasioned by the descent upon 
the coast of Scandinavian pirates, brought all the other states to a 
subject or tributary condition, and became, though he really 
never assumed the title, 2 the first king of England, and the 
founder of the long line of Saxon monarchs (a.d. 827). 

Teutonic Tribes outside the Empire. — We have now spoken 
of the most important of the Teutonic tribes that forced them- 
selves within the limits of the Roman Empire in the West, and 
that there, upon the ruins of the civilization they had overthrown, 
laid or helped to lay the foundations of the modern nations of 
Italy, Spain, France, and England. Beyond the boundaries of the 
old empire were still other tribes and clans of this same mighty 
family of nations, — tribes and clans that were destined to play 
great parts in European history. 

On the east, beyond the Rhine, were the ancestors of the 
modern Germans. Notwithstanding the immense hosts that the 

1 "These kingdoms are sometimes called the Heptarchy, from the Greek 
words eTrrd, seven, and apxv, kingdom or government. But I do not think 
this a good name. For kirrapx^a- in Greek would not mean seven kingdoms 
close together, but rather a single government in the hands of seven persons. 
And the name Heptarchy also gives the idea of a more regular state of things 
than there was, if there had always been exactly seven kingdoms, neither more 
nor fewer." — Freeman's Old English History. 

2 The title given him in the Saxon Chronicle is that of Bretwalda, which is 
sometimes rendered " Wielder of Britain." The Chronicle also states that 
Egbert was the eighth king to bear this title. 



TEUTONIC TRIBES OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE. 27 

forests and morasses of Germany had poured into the Roman 
provinces, the Father-land, in the sixth century of our era, seemed 
still as crowded as before the great migration began. These tribes 
were yet savages in manners and for the most part pagans in 
religion. 

In the northwest of Europe were the Scandinavians, the ances- 
tors of the modern Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. Untouched 
by the civilization or religion of Rome, they were thorough savages 
and pagans. We shall scarcely get a glimpse of them before the 
ninth century, when they will appear as " Norsemen," the dreaded 
corsairs of the northern seas. 



28 FIRS T PERIOD. — THE DARK A GES. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 

I. The Introduction of Christianity among the Different 

Tribes. 

Introductory. — The most important event in the history of the 
tribes that took possession of the Roman Empire in the West 
was their conversion to Christianity. The facility with which they 
exchanged their primitive beliefs for the new faith was due to two 
causes, — the excellence of the religion that was offered for their 
acceptance, and the loose hold they had upon their own. "Those 
who have no homes for themselves," says Montesquieu, "were 
never known to build temples, and those peoples who have no 
temples have but a small attachment to their own religion." The 
Teutons, before they entered the Empire, were without homes or 
temples. As they readily abandoned old seats and went in search 
of others, so did they lightly give up old beliefs and embrace new 
ones. Also, they were almost, if not quite, without written rec- 
ords ; and races whose religion is merely traditional and not yet 
embalmed in literature, will more readily give it up in exchange 
for a new than those whose faith is conserved by the authority of 
books venerable through age, and sacred by virtue of mysterious 
or forgotten origin. 

We shall now notice some of the incidents and features of the 
great victory gained by Christianity over the barbarian subverters 
of the Roman Empire, — a peaceful victory much more worthy of 
our attention than many a triumph of a more martial nature. 

Progress of Christianity before the Fall of Rome. — By the 
end of the fourth century Christianity had achieved its first great 
victory. It had triumphed over pagan and skeptical Rome. As 
early as a.d. 313 Constantine had proclaimed it the favored religion 



CONVERSION- OF THE GOTHS. 29 

of the Empire. But the zeal of the missionaries of the new faith 
did not permit them to stop at the boundaries that circumscribed 
the Roman State ; for they were the embassadors of a universal 
kingdom which recognized none of the dividing lines of nations. 
They crossed all the frontiers of the Roman dominion, and taught 
the new doctrines in Ireland and Scotland, beneath the forests of 
Germany, and upon the plains of Scythia. By the opening of the 
fifth century the empire of Christianity was far ampler than that 
of the Caesars had ever been. 

To this circumstance of the barbarians' conversion before or 
soon after their entrance into the Empire, its subjects owed their 
immunity from the excessive cruelties which rude pagan barbari- 
ans never fail to inflict upon a subjected enemy. Alaric left 
untouched the treasures of the churches of the Roman Chris- 
tians, because his own faith was also Christian. For like reason 
the Vandal king Genseric yielded to the prayers of Pope Leo the 
Great, and promised to leave to the inhabitants of the Imperial 
City their lives. The more tolerable fate of Italy, Spain, and 
Gaul, as compared with the hard fate of Britain, is owing, in part 
at least, to the fact that the tribes which overran those countries 
had become in the main converts to Christianity before they 
crossed the boundaries of the Empire, while the Saxons when 
they entered Britain were still untamed pagans. 

Conversion of the Goths. — The first converts to Christianity 
among the barbarians beyond the limits of the Empire were won 
from among the Goths. Probably the pioneer missionaries among 
these tribes were captives taken by them in their raids across the 
Danube. These slaves became the teachers of their rude mas- 
ters, and thus the doctrines and precepts of the Christian faith 
were spread among the various tribes of the Gothic nation. 
Foremost of the apostles that arose among them was Ulfilas, who 
translated the Scriptures into the Gothic language, omitting from 
his version, however, "the Books of Kings," 1 as he feared that the 

1 I. and II. Samuel and I. and II. Kings. "This was the first translation 
of the Bible into a barbarian tongue." — Hodgkin. 



30 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

stirring recital of wars and 1 tattles in that portion of the Word 
might kindle into too fierce a flame the martial ardor of his new 
converts. 

When the Visigoths, distressed by the Huns, besought the 
Eastern Emperor Valens for permission to cross the Danube, one 
of the conditions imposed upon them was that they should all be 
baptized in the Christian faith, to which they acceded. This 
seems to have crowned the work that had been going on among 
them for some time. " In their long and victorious march from 
the Danube to the Atlantic Ocean, they converted their allies ■ 
they educated the rising generation ; and the devotion which 
reigned in the camp of Alaric, or the court of Toulouse might 
edify or disgrace the palaces of Rome and Constantinople." — 
Gibbon. 

Conversion of the Vandals and Other Trihes. — What hap- 
pened to the Goths happened also to most of the barbarian 
tribes that participated in the overthrow of the Roman Empire 
in the West. By the time of the fall of Augustulus, a.d. 476, the 
Gothic and other barbarian mercenaries in Italy who dethroned 
that emperor ; the Vandals, who had traversed the length of the 
Empire and were now in Africa; the Suevi, who had crossed 
the Pyrenees and entered Spain; the Burgundians, who had 
established themselves in southeastern Gaul — all these had be- 
come proselytes to Christianity. They professed, however, the 
greater part of them, the Arian creed, which had been con- 
demned by the great council of the Church held at Nice during 
the reign of Constantine the Great (a.d. 325). Hence they were 
regarded as heretics by the Roman Church, and all had to be 
reconverted to the orthodox creed, which thing was gradually 
effected. 

The remaining Teutonic tribes of whose conversion we shall 
speak — the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians, and 
the chief tribes of Germany — embraced at the outset the Catho- 
lic faith. 

Conversion of the Franks. —The Franks, when they entered 



AUGUSTINE'S MISSION TO ENGLAND. 31 

the Empire, like the Angles and Saxons when they landed in 
Britain, were still pagans. Christianity gained way very slowly 
among them until a supposed. interposition by the Christian God 
in their behalf led the king and nation to adopt the new religion 
in place of their old faith. The circumstances were these. In 
the year 496, just twenty years after the fall of Rome, the 
Alemanni crossed the Rhine and fell upon the Franks. Clovis 
gathered all his warriors to repel the invaders. A terrible battle 
ensued. After many hours' hard fighting the situation of the 
Franks appeared desperate. Then Clovis, falling upon his knees, 
called upon the God of the Christians, whose faith the good 
queen Clotilda had often sought to persuade him to embrace, and 
solemnly vowed that if He would give victory to his arms, he 
would become His faithful follower, and ever maintain His cause 
with his sword. The battle soon turned in favor of the Franks, 
and Clovis, faithful to his vow, was baptized, and with him several 
thousands of his warriors. 

This incident illustrates how the very superstitions of the barba- 
rians, their belief in omens and divine interpositions, contributed 
to their conversion. The terror occasioned by a desolating 
plague caused the Bulgarians to seek refuge and relief by a pro- 
fession of the Christian faith. In like manner the Burgundians, 
when sorely pressed by their enemies, thinking their own gods 
were offended or were powerless to aid them, embraced in a body 
the religion of the Christians. Thus the reception of the new 
faith was often a tribal or national affair, rather than a matter of 
personal conviction. 

Augustine's Mission to England. — The Angles and Saxons 
were not converted to Christianity until about a century and a 
half after their first landing in Britain. The Welsh still retained 
the Christian faith which they had received during Roman times ; 
but, as has been said, they felt no inclination to help these barba- 
rians who had robbed them of their lands, to secure a title to the 
heavenly inheritance. The work of our forefathers' conversion 
was, in its inception, the result of the missionary zeal of Rome. 



32 FIRST PERIOD, — THE DARK AGES. 

In the year 596 Pope Gregory I. sent the monk Augustine 
with a band of forty companions to teach the Christian faith in 
Britain. Gregory had become interested in the inhabitants of 
that remote region in the following way. One day, some years 
before his elevation to the papal chair, he was passing through the 
slave-market at Rome, and noticed there some English captives, 
whose fine form and fair features awakened his curiosity respect- 
ing them. Inquiring of what nation they were, he was told that 
they were called Angles. "'Right,' said he, 'for they have an 
angelic face, and it becomes such to become coheirs with the 
angels in heaven. What is the name,' proceeded he, 'of the 
province from which they are brought ? ' It was replied that the 
natives of that province were called Deiri. ' Truly are they De 
ira, 1 said he, 'withdrawn from wrath and called to the mercy of 
Christ. How is the king of that province called? ' They told him 
his name was ^Ella ; and he, alluding to the name, said, ' alleluia, 
the praise of God the Creator, must be sung in those parts.' " l 

The pious monk wished to set out at once himself as a mis- 
sionary to the pagan peoples in whom his interest had thus been 
awakened ; but duties at the capital hindered him. When, how- 
ever, a little while afterwards he was elected Pope, still mindful of 
the incident of the slave-market, he sent to the Angles the em- 
bassy to which we have alluded. 

Not less interesting than the story of the inception of the com- 
mission to the tribes of Britain, is that of the manner in which the 
natives received the embassy. At this time Ethelbert of Kent 
was overlord of several of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that had 
grown up in the island. Now it so happened that his queen 
Bertha, being a Frankish princess, was a professor of the faith that 
had already been received by the Frank nation, and through her 
influence the king received Augustine and his companions with 
open courtesy, listened attentively to the appeals of the monk, 
and finally yielding to the persuasions of his eloquence, embraced 
with his people the Christian faith. And so it came to pass that 
1 Bede's Eccl. Hist. II. 1. 



THE CELTIC CHURCH. 31 

the Saxons were first called Christians at Canterbury, the capital 
of Kent, and from that day that city became the centre of the 
early religious life of England, and in time acquired a wide 
celebrity as the seat of one of the most famous cathedrals of 
Christendom. 

A little while after the reception of Christianity by the king 
and people of Kent, the same faith was received in the kingdom 
of Northumbria. When the Christian messengers appealed to 
Edwin, the king of the Northumbrians, to embrace the religion of 
which they were the embassadors, he called a council of his wise 
men, and submitted to them the question whether the old faith 
should be exchanged for the new. Then one of the aged coun- 
selors, whose words well illustrate the serious, thoughtful character 
of the Saxon spirit, arose in the assembly, and said : " O king, 
man's life is like a bird, that, driven by the storm, flees from the 
darkness without and flying in by the open door flits for a few 
moments in the warmth and light of the dwelling, where the fire 
is glowing, and then hastily darts out again into the cold and 
darkness. Whence it comes, whither it goes, no one can tell. 
Such is the life of man. The soul for a few moments takes up 
her warm abode in this body ; then quickly departs hence, but 
into what weal or woe no tongue has yet ever revealed to us. If 
then this mystery these strangers can tell us, heartily let us wel- 
come them and listen to the tidings they bring." 1 

The result of the embassy and of the deliberations of the wise 
men was that the temples of Woden and Thor were burned, 
and the king and • his people were baptized and confessed the 
Christian faith (a.d. 627). 

The Celtic Church. — The bright prospects for the new faith 
in Northumbria were soon overclouded. King Edwin fell in 
battle with the pagan king of Mercia, and his kingdom sank back 
into heathenism. Soon, however, it was reconquered from Woden 
and won again for Christ, but this time not by Roman, but by 
Celtic missionaries. 

1 Bede's Eccl. Hist. II. 13. 



34 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

It here becomes necessary for us to say a word respecting the 
Celtic Church. Christianity, it must be borne in mind, held its 
place among the Celts whom the Saxons crowded slowly west- 
ward. Now during the very period that England was being 
wrested from the Welsh warriors, the Welsh missionaries were 
effecting the spiritual conquest of Ireland. The struggle with the 
invaders was at its height when a zealous priest, Patricius by 
name, better known as Saint Patrick, whose early years had been 
passed in captivity among the Irish, crossed over to the island 
as a missionary of the Cross. With such success were his labors 
attended that by the time of his death, which probably occurred 
towards the close of the fifth century, a large part of the island 
had embraced the Christian faith. 

Never did any race receive the Gospel with more ardent enthu- 
siasm. The Irish Church sent out its devoted missionaries into 
the Pictish Highlands, into the forests of Germany, and among 
the wilds of Alps and Apennines. " For a time it seemed that the 
course of the world's history was to be changed ; as if the older 
Celtic race that Roman and German had driven before them had 
turned to the moral conquest of their conquerors ; as if Celtic, 
and not Latin, Christianity was to mould the destinies of the 
churches of the West." 1 

Among the numerous religious houses founded by the Celtic 
missionaries was the famous monastery established about a.d. 564 
by the Irish monk Saint Columba, on the little isle of Iona, just 
off the Pictish coast. Iona became a most renowned centre of 
Christian learning and missionary zeal, and for almost two centu- 
ries was the point from which radiated light through the darkness 
of the surrounding heathenism. Fitly has it been called the 
Nursery of Saints and the Oracle of the West. 

The Celtic Mission to Northumbria (a.d. 635). — From this 
famous monastery it was that went forth the missionaries destined 
to effect the reconquest of Northumbria. They came at the 

1 Green's The Making of England, p. 281. 



THE COUNCIL OF WHITBY. 35 

invitation of King Oswald, who, during a period of exile, had 
found an asylum in the cloisters of Iona. The king gave the 
monks for the site of a monastery the isle or peninsula of Lindis- 
farne upon the Northumbrian coast, where the dash of the tem- 
pestuous Northern Sea must often have reminded them of the 
little storm-swept isle on the opposite Atlantic shore. The work 
of the monks, fostered by Oswald's zeal, was crowned with abun- 
dant success, and Northumbria was soon won to the communion 
of the Celtic Church. 

Rivalry between the Roman and the Celtic Church. — From 
the very moment that Augustine touched the shores of Britain 
and summoned the Welsh clergy to acknowledge the discipline 
of the Roman Church, there had been a growing jealousy between 
the Latin and Celtic Churches, which had now risen into the bit- 
terest rivalry and strife. So long had the Celtic Church been cut 
off from all relations with Rome, that it had come to differ some- 
what from it in the matter of certain ceremonies and observances, 
such as the time of keeping Easter and the form of the tonsure. 
Furthermore it was inclined to look upon St. John rather than 
upon St. Peter as the apostle of pre-eminence. 

The Council of Whitby (a.d. 664). — With a view to settling 
the quarrel Oswy, king of Northumbria, who thought that "as 
they all expected the same kingdom of heaven, so they ought not 
to differ in the celebration of the divine mysteries," called a synod 
composed of representatives of both parties, at the famous monas- 
tery of Whitby. The chief question of debate, which was argued 
before the king by the ablest advocates of both Churches, was the 
proper time for the observance of Easter. The debate was warm, 
and hot words were exchanged. Finally Wilfred, the speaker for 
the Roman party, happening to quote the words of Christ to 
Peter, "To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven," 
the king asked the Celtic monks if these words were really spoken 
by Christ to that apostle, and upon their admitting that they were, 
Oswy said, " He being the door-keeper, ... I will in all things 



36 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

obey his decrees, lest when I come to the gates of the kingdom 
of heaven, there should be none to open them." 1 

The decision of the prudent Oswy gave the British Isles to 
Rome ; for not only was all ' England quickly won to the Roman 
side, but the churches of Wales and Ireland and Scotland soon 
came to conform to the Roman standard and custom. In the 
year 716 Iona itself, "the last stronghold of Celtic Christianity," 
yielded to the supremacy of the Roman Church. " By the assist- 
ance of our Lord," says the pious Latin chronicler, " the monks 
were brought to the canonical observation of Easter, and the 
right mode of the tonsure." 

The Roman Victory Fortunate for England. — Although in 
this struggle between the Celtic and the Roman Church our 
sympathies are apt to go with the former, still there is no doubt 
but that it was very fortunate for England that the controversy 
turned as it did. For one of the most important of the destined 
consequences of the conversion of Britain was the re-establish- 
ment of that connection of the island with Roman civilization 
which had been severed by the calamities of the fifth century. 
As Green says, — he is speaking of the embassy of St. Augustine, 
— " The march of the monks as they chanted their solemn litany 
was in one sense a return of the Roman legions who withdrew 
at the trumpet call of Alaric. . . . Practically Augustine's landing 
renewed that union with the western world which the landing of 
Hengest had destroyed. The new England was admitted into 
the older Commonwealth of nations. The civilization, art, letters, 
which had fled before the sword of the English conquerors 
returned with the Christian faith." 

Now all this advantage would have been lost had Iona instead 
of Rome won at Whitby. England would have been isolated from 
the world, and would have had no part or lot in that rich common 
life which was destined to the European peoples as co-heirs of 
the heritage bequeathed to them by the dying Empire. 

1 Beck's EccL Hist. III. 25. 






LITERATURE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 37 

A second valuable result of the Roman victory was the hasten- 
ing of the political unity of England through its ecclesiastical 
unity. The Celtic Church, in marked contrast with the Latin, 
was utterly devoid of capacity for organization. It could have 
done nothing in the way of developing among the several Anglo- 
Saxon states the sentiment of nationality. On the other hand, 
the Roman Church, through the exercise of a central authority, 
through national synods and general legislation, overcame the 
isolation of the different kingdoms, and helped powerfully to draw 
them together into a common political life. 

Pagan and Christian Literature of the Anglo-Saxons. — Much 
light is cast upon our ancestors' change of religion by two famous 
poems which date from the Anglo-Saxon period of our literature. 
One of these, called Beowulf, was composed while our forefathers 
were yet pagans, and probably before they left the continent ; the 
other, known as the Paraphrase of the Scriptures, was written 
soon after their conversion to Christianity. 

Beowulf is an epic poem, which tells of the exploits of an 
heroic Viking, Beowulf by name, who delivers King Hrothgar and 
his Danes from the ravages of a terrible monster, called Grendel, 
a sort of northern Cyclops, who feasted upon sleeping men. It is 
alive with the instincts of paganism, and is a faithful reflection of 
the rough heathen times in which it had birth. Every passage 
displays the love of the savage for coarse horrors and brutal 
slaughters. Thus it runs : " The wretched wight [Grendel] seized 
quickly a sleeping warrior, slit him unawares, bit his bone-locker, 
drank his blood, in morsels swallowed him ; soon had he all eaten, 
feet and fingers." Before another can be made a victim Beowulf 
closes with the monster. " The hall thundered, the ale of all the 
Danes and earls was spilt. Angry, fierce were the strong fighters, 
the hall was full of din. It was great wonder that the wine-hall 
stood above the war-like beasts, that the fair earth-house fell not 
to the ground." 

Such was the gleeman's song which delighted our Saxon fore- 
fathers as they drank and caroused in their great mead-halls. 



3S FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

They were savages, evidently, rough and fierce ; yet their spirits 
were true and brave. 

In striking contrast with the pagan hero-poem stands the 
Paraphrase, the first-fruits in English literature of the mission of 
Augustine. This poem, which was written sometime in the seventh 
century, exhibits our Saxon ancestors as Christian converts, study- 
ing and apparently appreciating the grand literature of the 
Hebrews. In it a Saxon monk, named Csedmon, upon whom the 
gift of song, according to legend, had been miraculously bestowed, 1 
sings with strange power and rapture, such as none of his race 
had known before him, — the creation of the world, the fall of 
man, and all the long Bible story. 

The Paraphrase reminds us of Milton's Paradise Lost (written 
a thousand years later), and pursues very much the same order in 
the treatment of its lofty theme. Hence Caedmon is sometimes 
called the Saxon Milton. His poem was multiplied in manuscript 
copies, and for five centuries was read by all classes of English- 
men, being given an honored place alongside the Bible itself. 
The poet-monk thus did much to advance the cause of Christi- 
anity among our ancestors ; for, by his verses, as says the Vener- 

1 The following is the substance of the account which Bede gives respect- 
ing the call of Csedmon : " There was in the monastery of Whitby, over which 
presided the Abbess Hilda, a certain brother, who had learned the art of 
poetry, not from men, but from God; for having lived in a secular habit till 
he was well advanced in years, he had never learned anything of versifying; 
for which reason being sometimes at entertainments, when it was agreed for 
the sake of mirth that all present should sing in their turns, when he saw the 
instrument come toward him, he rose up from table and returned home. 
Having done so at a certain time, and gone out of the house where the enter- 
tainment was, to the stable, where he had to take care of the horses that night, 
he there composed himself to rest. In his sleep a person appeared to him, 
and saluting him, said, ' Caedmon, sing some song to me.' He answered, ' I 
cannot sing, for that was the reason why I left the entertainment.' The other 
replied, ' However, you shall sing.' 'What shall I sing?' rejoined Ceedmon. 
' Sing the beginning of created beings,' was the reply. Whereupon, he pres- 
ently began to sing verses to the praise of God. Awaking from his sleep, he 
remembered all that he had sung in his dream, and soon added much more 
to the same effect in verse worthy of the Deity." — Eccl. Hist. IV. 24. 



THE CONVERSION OF GERMANY. 39 

able Bede, 1 ei the minds of many were often excited to despise the 
world, and to aspire to heaven." 

Effect of Conversion upon the Martial Spirit of the Anglo- 
Saxons. — The conversion of England was effected chiefly through 
the labor of monks, and consequently it was the monastic form of 
Christianity that was introduced. The land became crowded with 
monasteries and nunneries. "More than thirty kings and queens," 
Trench says, " descended from the throne to end their days in 
cloistral retreats." Perhaps no other Teutonic tribes gave up so 
much of their native strength and martial energy, upon receiving 
Christianity, as did the Angles and Saxons of Britain. The practice 
of arms was discouraged and neglected ; the people became " a 
nation of praying monks." This decay of the martial spirit in 
a martial age, at a time when the independence and very life of a 
nation depended upon its strength in arms, brought upon England 
centuries of invasion, woe, and disaster. Of the ravages com- 
mitted in the island by the Danes or Northmen, during the eighth 
and ninth centuries, to which calamities we refer, we shall come 
to speak in a following chapter. We will here simply say that 
these hard experiences, and the infusion of the fresh blood of the 
Northern peoples, resulted finally in the revival of the early vigor 
and martial spirit of the nation. 

The Conversion of Germany. — The conversion of the tribes of 
Germany was effected by Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Frankish mis- 
sionaries, — and the sword of Charlemagne. The great apostle of 
Germany was the Saxon Winfred, better known as St. Boniface, 
who was born about a.d. 688. During a long and intensely active 
life he founded schools and monasteries, organized churches, 
preached and baptized ; and at last died a martyr's death (a.d. 
753). Through him, says Milman, the Saxon invasion of England 
flowed back upon the Continent. 

1 Bede the Venerable (a.d. 673-735) was a pious and learned Saxon monk, 
who wrote, among other works, an invaluable one entitled The Ecclesiastical 
History of England. The work recites, as its central theme, the story of how 
our forefathers were won to the Christian faith. We are indebted to Bede 
for a large part of our knowledge of early England. 



40 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

A single incident will illustrate the zeal and resolution of the 
priest, and the character of his work in the German forests. Find- 
ing his followers still lingering in their old superstitions, Boniface 
resolved to demonstrate to them the powerlessness of their deities, 
by felling a large, venerable oak in a grove sacred to the Thun- 
derer. The natives awaited with breathless expectation the issue 
of this challenge to their god, expecting to see the audacious 
priest struck to the earth by the bolts of heaven ; but when the 
tree at last fell with a great crash, and no harm came to the bold 
axeman, the pagans acknowledged the superiority of the Christian 
God. Out of the wood of the sacred oak Boniface caused to be 
built a large chapel, and from this time the work of conversion 
went rapidly forward. 

The Saxons were the most important of the German tribes left 
untouched by the mission of Boniface. (Only a small part of this 
tribe, apparently, had pushed out to the conquest of England.) 
These fierce and obstinate pagans were finally driven within the 
pale of the Church by the strong arm of Charlemagne (a.d. 772- 
803), — a Christian Mohammed in his methods of persuasion. 

The christianizing of the tribes of Germany relieved the Teu- 
tonic states of Western Europe from the constant peril of massacre 
by their heathen kinsmen, and erected a strong barrier in Central 
Europe against the advance of the waves of Turanian paganism 
and of Mohammedanism which for centuries beat so threateningly 
against the eastern frontiers of Germany. 1 

Christianity in the North. — The progress of Christianity in 
the North was slow ; but gradually, during the ninth, tenth, and 
eleventh centuries, the missionaries of the Church won over all 
the Scandinavian peoples. 

1 The conversion of Russia dates from about the close of the tenth century. 
Its evangelization was effected by the missionaries of Constantinople, that is. 
of the Greek or Eastern Church. Of the Turanian tribes, only the Hungarians 
or Magyars embraced Christianity. All the other Turanian peoples that 
appeared on the eastern edge of Europe during the Middle Ages came as 
pagan or Moslem enemies. 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE NORTH 41 

The circumstances attending the introduction of the new re- 
ligion into Iceland possess a special interest. In the year 1000 
some missionaries from Norway pushed out to the island to aid a 
weak Christian party in establishing there the faith of the Cross. 
It so happened that just at this time one of the volcanoes of the 
land broke out in violent eruption. The advocates of the ancient 
faith, who bitterly opposed the new religion, declared that the 
outburst of lava was the sign of the anger of their gods because of 
the attempted innovation. But this argument was met by one of 
the old chiefs, who asked, " And what excited their wrath when 
these rocks of lava, which we ourselves tread, were themselves 
glowing torrents? " 

The adherents of Odin were silenced. A decree was ratified 
by the national assembly, which ordered that all the inhabitants be 
baptized, that the heathen idols and temples be destroyed, and 
that any one publicly worshipping the ancient deities be punished. 
" But private worship, the exposing of infants, the eating of horse- 
flesh, and other practices not inconsistent with the precepts of 
Christianity were still tolerated." 1 After a few years, however, 
these heathen practices were suppressed, as well as trial by judicial 
combat. 

By the end of the eleventh century all the Northern countries 
were christianized. One important effect of the conversion of the 
Scandinavian nations was the checking of their piratical expedi- 
tions, which, during all the centuries of their pagan history, were 
constantly putting out from the fiords of the Northern peninsulas, 
and vexing every shore to the south. " These perennial streams 
of wrath and bitterness, which it had been impossible to staunch, 
were healed at their source ; and the dreaded Viking, the Reg- 
nars and the Hastings, or the like of these, sat down to peaceful 
occupations in their own land." — Trench. 

By the opening of the fourteenth century all Europe was 
claimed by Christianity, save a limited district in Southern Spain 

1 Wheaton's History of the Northmen, p. 44. 



42 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

held by the Moors, and another in the Baltic regions possessed by 
the still pagan Finns and Lapps. 

The Paganizing of Christianity. — Thus were the conquerors 
of the Empire met and conquered by Christianity. The victory, it 
must be confessed, was, in a great degree, a victory rather in name 
than in fact. The uncivilized tribes for a long time after they 
were called Christian knew very little of the doctrines, and exhib- 
ited still less of the true spirit of the religion they professed. Nor, 
indeed, could we expect to find it otherwise. The subjects of 
the Roman Empire, in adopting the new religion in exchange 
for their own, had mingled with it many of their heathen notions 
and rites. Then, when these semi-Christian Latins imparted this 
modified Christianity to their conquerors, it naturally underwent a 
still further corruption among the latter. "The immediate effect," 
as Church says, " of this contact of the barbarians with Christianity 
was to lower and injure Christianity. Christianity raised them, 
but it suffered itself in the effort." The simple-minded barbarians 
being utterly unable to comprehend the metaphysical subtleties 
elaborated by the Greek and Latin Fathers out of the plain doc- 
trines and precepts of Christ and the teachings of his disciples, they 
naturally fell away into all sorts of heresies. Furthermore, the 
Church even intentionally transformed herself, in order the better 
to secure her object. In the poetical language of Michelet, " she 
made herself a child to prattle with her child, and translated the 
ineffable to it in puerile legend, such as fitted its tender age." 
"To dazzle the senses of the barbarians, and work upon their 
imagination," says Guizot, "she increased wonderfully the number, 
pomp, and variety of her religious ceremonies. She converted 
them by grand spectacles." Yet this, as Alzog maintains, was but 
prudence and moderation, the Catholic missionaries so adjusting 
the requirements of Christian law, and so tempering its severity as 
not to do violence to the prejudices and practices of the idolaters 
whom they would win. 

Still, however justifiable may have been the course of the 
Catholic missionaries, the result was that the mediaeval Church 



ORIGIN OF MONASTJCISM. 43 

became very different from that of the primitive age of Christianity. 
Even what are called the " reformed creeds " are very far from 
having effaced the traces of the barbarian period of the Church's 
history. Many of our religious ideas, festivals, and ceremonies, as 
witness Easter and Christmas, may be traced back to an origin in 
the practices and beliefs of our heathen ancestors. 

II. Development of the Monastic System. 

Origin of Monasticism. — It was during this very conflict with 
the barbarians that the Church developed the remarkable institu- 
tion known as Monasticism. This was so singular a system, and 
one which exerted so profound an influence upon mediaeval 
history, that we must in this place acquaint ourselves with at least 
its origin and aims. 

Monasticism or Monachism, from the Greek word monos, mean- 
ing alone, denotes a life of seclusion from the world, with the 
object of promoting the interests of the soul. The central idea 
underlying the system is, that the body is a weight and hindrance 
to the spirit ; and that it is especially meritorious to refuse gratifi- 
cation to all those appetites and instincts that have their rise in 
our physical nature. 

The monastic system embraced two prominent classes of 
ascetics : i . Hermits or anchorites, persons who, retiring from 
the world, lived solitary lives in desolate places ; 2. Cenobites or 
monks, who formed communities and lived under a common 
roof. 

The monastic idea of life was by no means original with 
Christianity ; the notion was held and acted upon long before the 
Christian era. In the ascetic mode of life adopted by many of 
the Jewish teachers, as, for instance, by Elijah and John the 
Baptist, we find illustration of this. The Hindu prince known 
as Buddha, the founder of the religious system of Buddhism, who 
renounced the luxuries of the palace for the austerities of the 
desert, was a typical anchorite. About the time of Christ there 



44 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

were to be found in Egypt the Therapeutse and in Syria the 
Essenes, sects of religious enthusiasts whose members affected 
a solitary and ascetic life. 

But it was under the influence of Christianity that Monachism 
exhibited its most wonderful development. The advice of the 
Apostle Paul respecting marriage, and a misconception of certain 
Scriptural texts wherein are set in opposition the life of the body 
and that of the spirit and which enjoin the mortification of the 
flesh, encouraged and fostered the doctrine. It was not, however, 
until the beginning of the third century that the idea became a 
part of the theology of the Church. Then it seized upon the 
Christians of the East like a contagion. The famous St. Anthony, 
an Egyptian ascetic, who by his example and influence gave a 
tremendous impulse to the strange enthusiasm, is called the 
"father of the hermits." The Decian persecution (a.d. 249-251), 
driving thousands into the deserts, contributed vastly to the 
movement. The cities of Egypt became almost emptied of their 
Christian population. It is estimated that before the close of the 
fourth century the number of hermits and cenobites in a great 
part of Egypt was about equal to the population of the cities. 1 

These pious enthusiasts of the desert, renouncing family and 
friends and the world, thought by the most ingenious self-torture 
and sacrifice of the body to make sure of the salvation of their 
souls. They lived, some in tombs, some in dried-up wells, others 
in caves so low and small that the body could never assume a 
position of ease. One saint lived in a swamp, that he might 
subject his naked body to the sting of insects ; another stood 
praying for forty days in a thorn-bush ; while still another spent 
three years leaning against a rock, not permitting his body to 
assume any posture more comfortable. Some acquired the repu- 
tation of immaculate purity of soul by allowing their bodies, 
untouched by water, to accumulate the filth of half a century. 
Most famous of all, however, was St. Simeon Stylites (died 
A.D. 461), who spent thirty years on a pillar sixty feet high and 

1 Lecky's History of European Morals, Vol. II. p. 105. 



MONASTICISM IN THE WEST. 45 

only three feet in circumference, 1 thereby earning the titles of 
Star of the Earth and Wonder of the World. 

Monasticism in the West. — About the middle of the fourth 
century the cenobite system was established in the East, and soon 
afterwards was introduced into Europe, and in an astonishingly 
short space of time spread throughout all the western countries 
where Christianity had gained a foothold. Here it prevailed to 
the almost total exclusion of the hermit mode of life, though there 
were some famous anchorites among the European churches ; but 
the climate, among other causes, was unfavorable to the develop- 
ment of the enthusiasm in this form. Monasteries arose on every 
side, in the wilds of the desert and in the midst of the crowded 
city. The number that fled to these retreats was vastly augmented 
by the disorder and terror attending the invasion of the barbarians 
and the overthrow of the Empire in the West. The movement 
drew within the circle of its influence women as well as men, and 
nunneries were founded in great numbers, which were subjected 
to a discipline similar to that of the monasteries. 

With the view of introducing some sort of system and uniformity 
among the numerous communities, fraternities or associations were 
early organized and spread rapidly. The three essential vows 
required of their members were poverty, chastity, and obedience. 
The most famous of these fraternities was the Order of the Bene- 
dictines, so called from St. Benedict (a.d. 480-543), the founder 
of the celebrated monastery of Monte Cassino in Southern Italy. 

1 On this aerial perch " he remained exposed to every change of climate, 
ceaselessly and rapidly bending his body in prayer almost to the level of his 
feet. A spectator attempted to number the rapid motions, but desisted from 
weariness when he had counted 1244. For a whole year, we are told, St. 
Simeon stood upon one leg, the other being covered with hideous ulcers, while 
his biographer was commissioned to stand by his side, to pick up the worms 
that fell from his body, and to replace them in the sores, the saint saying to 
the worm, ' Eat what God has given you.' From every quarter pilgrims of 
every degree thronged to do him homage. A crowd of prelates followed him 
to the grave." See Lecky's History of European Morals, Vol. II. p. 112, from 
which work are drawn the illustrations of the text. 



46 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

The rules of this fraternity were simple and some of them very 
sensible, as for instance that which made work with the hands a 
pious duty. The order became immensely popular. So univer- 
sally did the monks subject themselves to the Rule of Benedict, as 
it was called, that Charlemagne was constrained to make diligent 
inquiry to ascertain whether there were monks of any other order. 
At one time it embraced about 40,000 abbeys. From its ranks 
came twenty-four popes and bishops, and saints without number. 

Advantages of the Monastic System. — The early establishment 
of the monastic system in the Church resulted in great advantages 
to the new world that was shaping itself out of the ruins of the old 
Empire. 

The monks became missionaries, and it was largely to their zeal 
and devotion that the Church owed her speedy and signal victory 
over the barbarians ; x they also became teachers, and under the 
shelter of the monasteries established schools which were the nur- 
series of learning during the Middle Ages ; they became copyists, 
and with great care and industry gathered and multiplied ancient 
manuscripts, and thus preserved and transmitted to the modern 
world much classical learning and literature that would otherwise 
have been lost ; they became agriculturists, especially the Bene- 
dictines, and by skilful labor converted the wilderness about their 
retreats into fair gardens, thus redeeming from barrenness some of 
the most desolate districts of Europe ; they became further the 
almoners of the pious and the wealthy, and distributed alms to the 
poor and needy. Everywhere the monasteries opened their hos- 
pitable doors to the weary, the sick, and the discouraged. In a 
word, these retreats were the inns, the asylums, and the hospitals, 

1 "The Missioners who went as upon the forlorn hope of the Middle Ages, 
who wrought the conversion of England, of Germany, of Scandinavia, of 
Slavonia, had been trained in the cloisters of Iona, or of St. Gall, or of the 
Benedictine Abbey of New Corbey, of which it is not too much to say, that 
the whole Scandinavian mission was fed from that single house, or of some 
other religious foundation of like kind." — Trench, Mediaeval Church His- 
tory, p. 104. 



EVILS OF THE SYSTEM. — CONCLUSION. 47 

as well as the schools of learning and the nurseries of religion of 
mediaeval Europe. Nor should we fail to mention how the asceti- 
cism of the monks checked those flagrant social evils that had 
sapped the strength of the Roman race, and which uncounteracted 
would have contaminated and weakened the purer peoples of the 
North j nor how, through its requirements of self-control and self- 
sacrifice it gave prominence to the inner life of the spirit. In the 
words of Armitage, " It taught men in plain language that the 
spiritual life is the only real life, the only life worth living." 

Evils of the System. — But there is another and darker side to 
the picture. The religious orders too often forgot or neglected 
their vows, and the monasteries, instead of fostering piety and 
devotion, became the nurseries of indolence and profligacy. The 
tendency of the entire system was to cast contempt upon woman 
and degrade the domestic relations. Again, the movement with- 
drew from active life, just at a time when the world needed its 
best men, many of the choicest spirits of the age. Also, the influ- 
ence of the monastic orders was always cast on the side of the 
Popes as against the Bishops and secular rulers, and thus they con- 
tributed, perhaps more than any other agency, to the building up 
of that colossal power of the Papacy, which enchained the tempo- 
ral princes of Europe in a servitude from which they were able to 
free themselves only after the greatest suffering and loss. The 
monks, moreover, inculcated some very pernicious doctrines, 
among which are those of passive obedience and pious deception ; 
the first teaching unquestioning submission to a superior, a doc- 
trine which has rendered so dangerous to free institutions the 
religious orders in the hands of ambitious popes or unscrupulous 
prelates ; the second, excusing and even justifying a lie told in the 
interest of truth, — that is, of the Church. 

Conclusion. — With a single word or two respecting the gen- 
eral consequences of the conversion to Christianity of the Teutonic 
tribes, we will close the present chapter. 

The adoption of a common faith by the European peoples drew 



48 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

them together into a sort of religious brotherhood, and rendered 
it possible for the continent to employ its undivided strength, 
during the succeeding centuries, in staying the threatening progress 
toward the West of the colossal Mohammedan power of the East. 
It set in the midst of the seething, martial nations and races of 
Europe an influence that fostered the gentler virtues, and a power 
that was always to be found on the side of order, and usually of 
mercy. It taught the brotherhood of men, the essential equality 
in the sight of God of the high and the low, and thus pleaded 
powerfully and at last effectually for the freedom of the slave and 
the serf. It prepared the way for the introduction among the 
barbarians of the arts, the literature, and culture of Rome, and 
contributed powerfully to hasten the fusion into a single people of 
the Latins and Teutons, of which important matter we shall treat 
in the following chapter. 



THE BARBARIANS AND THE ROMAN LANDS. 49 



CHAPTER III. 

FUSION OF THE LATIN AND TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 

Introductory. — Having seen how the Hebrew element, that 
is, the ideas, beliefs, and sentiments of Christianity, became the 
common possession of the Latins and Teutons, it yet remains to 
notice how these two races, upon the soil of the old Empire, 
intermingled their blood, their language, their laws, their usages 
and customs, to form new peoples, new tongues, and new institu- 
tions. 

In the new society arising from the fusion of the Latinized 
inhabitants of the Empire and their barbarian conquerors, the 
various resulting social or political institutions exhibit very dif- 
ferent proportions of the two combining elements. Sometimes 
it is the Latin, and then again the Teutonic element which 
predominates. Often, indeed, it is very difficult, as in the case 
of the early so-called barbarian monarchies and the later insti- 
tution of Feudalism, to determine just what was contributed by 
each. In many institutions we shall find the shaping spirit to have 
come from the classic culture, and the form from barbarian maxims 
and usages ; or, again, we shall discover the spirit to be Teutonic 
and the form Roman. 

In the present chapter we shall speak of only a few things touch- 
ing the intermingling of the peoples themselves, the formation 
of the new Romance tongues, and the relation of the barbarian 
codes to the Roman law. We shall say just enough to show how 
composite is the character of the structure that was reared on the 
site of the old Empire, out of the ruins of the broken-down civili- 
zation of Rome and the new contributions of the Northern peoples. 

The Barbarians and the Roman Lands. — The Teutons in 
their different settlements dealt with the conquered inhabitants 



50 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 



nent 
■ the 



of the Empire with varying degrees of harshness, the treatmen 
in any particular case being determined by the character of 
intruding tribe and the circumstances attending the invasion. 
Usually, cattle, furniture, money, the treasures of the churches, — 
all movables, in a word, were at once appropriated by the bar- 
barians as the legitimate spoils of war. But as a general thing 
they left the conquered provincials their freedom, and supplied 
themselves with servants by forcing the subjected people to give 
up to them part or all of their slaves. Yet, as a punishment for 
revolt or obstinate resistance, the entire population of a city or 
province was sometimes reduced to slavery, or was exterminated. 

If the intruders proposed to make a permanent settlement, they 
took possession of such portion of the soil as their numbers required. 
The German tribes that invaded Gaul in the time of Julius Caesar 
were accustomed to demand of the conquered Celts one half of 
their lands. The German adherents of Odoacer demanded and 
received one third of the soil of Italy ; l the Ostrogoths seized two 
thirds of the lands of the same country ; and the Visigoths took 
possession of a like proportion of the regions they occupied ; the 
Vandals appropriated the most and the best of the lands of North 
Africa; while the Saxons stripped the subjugated inhabitants of 
Britain of everything, indeed, exterminated them, or pushed them 
entirely off the soil. Where the conquered people were left any 
portion of their ancient possessions, this usually was the tillable 
part of the land, the barbarians, being hunters and shepherds, 
choosing for their part the forests and pastures. The Burgundians, 
however, took two thirds of the arable land of the districts they 
settled, the forest and pasture land being used in common by the 
invaders and the provincials. 

1 In this case " the proportion claimed was, no doubt, suggested by the 
Imperial system of billeting, according to which the citizen upon whom a 
soldier was quartered was bound to divide his house into three compartments, 
of which he kept one himself, his unbidden guest was then entitled to select 
another, and the third portion as well as the first remained in the occupation 
of the owner." — IIodgkin. 



THE ROMANCE NATIONS. 51 

The Romance Nations. — In some districts the barbarian 
invaders and the Roman provincials were kept apart for a long 
time by the bitter antagonism of race, and a sense of injury on 
the one hand and a feeling of disdainful superiority on the other. 
But for the most part the Teutonic intruders and the Latin-speak- 
ing inhabitants of Italy, Spain, and France very soon began freely 
to mingle their blood by family alliances. It is quite impossible 
to say what proportion the Teutons bore to the Romans. Of 
course the proportion varied in the different countries. In none 
of the countries named, however, was it large enough to absorb 
the Latinized population ; on the contrary, the barbarians were 
themselves absorbed, yet not without changing very essentially the 
body into which they were incorporated. Thus about the end of 
the fourth century everything in Italy, Spain, and France — dwel- 
lings, cities, dress, customs, language, laws, soldiers — reminds us 
of Rome. A little later, and a great change has taken place. The 
barbarians have come in. For a time we see everywhere, jostling 
each other in the streets and markets, crowding each other in the 
theatres and courts, kneeling together in the churches, the former 
Romanized subjects of the Empire and their uncouth Teutonic 
conquerors. But by the close of the ninth century the two ele- 
ments have become quite intimately blended, and a century or 
two later Roman and Teuton have alike disappeared, and we are 
introduced to Italians, Spaniards, and Frenchmen. These we call 
Romance nations, because at base they are Roman. 1 

The Formation of the Romance Languages. — During the five 

1 Britain did not become a Romance nation on account of the nature of the 
barbarian conquest of that island. The Romanized provincials, as has been 
seen, were here almost destroyed by the fierce Teutonic invaders, so that at 
the end of the eighth century we find these intruders essentially the same 
people that they were when they entered the island three centuries before. 
Hence the resemblance in manners, social arrangements, and language be- 
tween the English and the modern Germans. The English would still more 
resemble the Germans of to-day, were it not for the accident of the Norman 
Conquest, which, in the eleventh century, mingled the blood of the population 
of Northern Erance with that of the English. 



52 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

centuries of their subjection to Rome, the natives of Spain and 
Gaul forgot their barbarous dialects and came to speak a corrupt 
Latin. This exchange of languages was of course effected very 
gradually. Midway in the period, that is to say about the third 
century after Christ, it was almost a necessity for persons who dealt 
with all classes of society to be familiar with both the Latin and 
the Celtic language ; but by the fifth century the native tongue 
had everywhere and almost wholly given way to the speech of the 
conquerors. 

Now, in exactly the same way that the barbarous dialects of the 
Celtic tribes of Gaul and of the Celtiberians of Spain had given 
way to the more refined speech of the Romans, did the rude 
languages of the Teutons now yield to the more cultured speech 
of the Roman provincials. In the course of two or three centu- 
ries after their entrance into the' Empire, Goths, Lombards, Bur- 
gundians, and Franks, had, in a large measure, dropped their own 
tongue, and were speaking that of the people they had subjected. 
The conqueror becomes the conquered. " Rome, which had 
Latinized her conquered provinces, ultimately Latinized also her 
German conquerors." 

But there is need we bear in mind that the Latin used by the 
Roman provincials was not the classic speech of the capital. In 
its adoption by rude and ignorant peoples, the Latin had neces- 
sarily suffered change and degradation. It was this vulgar Latin 
that now underwent a still further corruption upon the lips of the 
mixed descendants of the Romans and Teutons. These semi- 
barbarians, children that they were, had the same dislike for the 
difficult declensions and conjugations of the Latin that young 
scholars entertain to-day ; and so in place of the long and 
troublesome terminations of the nouns and verbs, they substituted 
particles and auxiliary verbs. Long words they shortened by 
dropping out syllables, with a view to rendering them easier to 
pronounce. 

These changes were hastened and rendered greater than they 
would otherwise have been, by the decay of literature and learn- 



THE BARBARIANS AND ROMAN LEARNING. 53 

ing; for nothing so conserves the forms of a language as its 
embalmment in literature. This fixes and makes permanent the 
forms of words, which in the swift stream of illiterate speech are 
worn and rounded like pebbles in a mountain torrent. Further- 
more, because of the absence of a common popular literature, the 
changes that took place in one country did not exactly corre- 
spond to those going on in another. Hence, in the course of 
time, we find different dialects springing up, and by about the 
ninth century the Latin has virtually disappeared as a spoken lan- 
guage, and its place been usurped by what will be known as the 
Italian, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the French, and the Proven- 
cal tongues, all more or less resembling the ancient Latin, and all 
called Romance languages, because children of the old Roman 
speech. 

Consequences of the Confusion of Languages. — We are now in 
position to discern one of the causes that helped to render denser 
that dark pall of ignorance which, settling over Western Europe in 
the fifth century, continued almost unrelieved until the eleventh. 
As the provincial Latin began to change, the language in which 
the books were written and the speech of common talk began 
to diverge. Thus the manuscript rolls which held the wisdom of 
the Greeks and Romans soon became sealed to all save the 
learned. In this way the confusion of tongues conspired with the 
general confusion and anarchy of the times to extinguish the last 
rays of science and philosophy, and to deepen the gloom of the 
night that had settled upon all the lands once illumined by 
ancient learning and culture. Several centuries had necessarily to 
pass before the new languages forming could develop each a lit- 
erature of its own. Meanwhile all learning was shut up within 
the walls of the monasteries. 

The Barbarians and Roman Learning. — The sentiments of 
the barbarians tended to the same end as the separation of the 
language of every-day use, and that of letters. They prided 
themselves on their ignorance of letters, deeming that these 
impaired the native vigor of the mind, and rendered soft and 



54 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

effeminate the becoming hardihood of the warrior. The sub- 
jected Roman provincials unfortunately came to entertain the 
same opinion. With no rewards for learning, no praises of 
society for the successful cultivator of letters, both naturally fell 
into contempt and neglect. " For many centuries," says Hallam, 
" to sum up the account of ignorance in a word, it was rare for a 
layman, of whatever rank, to know how to sign his name." It 
has been a matter of great dispute whether Charlemagne, the 
most renowned personage that appears to view during the five 
centuries following the fall of Rome, was able to write. 

The Barbarian Codes. — The Teutonic tribes, before they 
entered the Roman Empire, had no written laws. As soon as 
settled in the provinces, however, they began, in imitation of the 
Romans, to frame their rules and customs into codes, and so we 
hear of the Salian, the Ripuarian, the Burgundian, the Lombard, 
and the Visigothic code. In some countries, particularly in Spain 
and Italy, this work was under the supervision of the clergy, and 
hence the codes of the Teutonic peoples in these countries was a 
sort of fusion of Roman principles and barbarian practices. But 
in general these early compilations of laws — they were made, for 
the most part, between the sixth and ninth centuries — were not 
so essentially modified by Latin influence but that they serve 
as valuable and instructive memorials of the customs, ideals, and 
social arrangements of the Teutonic peoples. 

Personal Character of the Teutonic Legislation. — The legisla- 
tion of the barbarians, so long as they remained such, that is to 
say, until Latins and Teutons became one people, was generally 
personal instead of territorial, as with us ; that is, instead of all 
the inhabitants of a given country being subject to the same laws, 
there were different ones for the different classes of society. The 
Latins, for instance, were subject in private law only to the old 
Roman code, while the Teutons lived under the rules and regula- 
tions which they had brought with them from beyond the Rhine 
and Danube ; all, however, were alike subject to the same political 
law. 



OR DEALS. 55 

Even among themselves the Teutons knew nothing of the mod- 
ern legal maxim that all should stand equal before the law. The 
penalty inflicted upon the evil-doer depended, not upon the 
nature of his crime, but upon his rank, or that of the party injured. 
Thus slaves and serfs could be beaten and put to death for minor 
offences, while a freeman might atone for any crime, even for mur- 
der, by the payment of a fine, the amount of the penalty being 
determined by the rank of the victim. Among the Franks, the 
weregild, as the compensation for murder was called, was fixed by 
the " tariff of damages " at 600 solidi (the solidus was equal to 
about sixteen shillings) for the life of an Antrustion or vassal of 
the king, but at only one third this sum for the life of a common 
Frank. Among the Saxons the life of a king's thane was worth 1200 
shillings, while that of a churl was valued only one sixth as high. 1 

The satisfaction allowed to despised classes of persons for assault 
or insult was sometimes singularly whimsical. Thus mountebanks 
and jugglers were simply given the satisfaction of striking the 
shadow of their assailant ; while the injured hired champion 2 — 
a person held in especially low esteem — was to consider ample 
reparation to have been made him when the offender cast upon 
him a ray of sunshine reflected from a polished shield. 3 

Ordeals. — The modes in which guilt or innocence was ascer- 
tained show in how rude a state was the administration of justice 
among the barbarians. One very common method of proof was 
by what were called ordeals, in which the question was submitted 
to the judgment of God. Of these the chief were the ordeal by 
fire, the ordeal by water, and the ordeal by battle. 

The ordeal by fire consisted in taking in the hand a red-hot iron, 
or in walking blindfolded with bare feet over a row of hot plough- 
shares laid lengthwise at irregular distances. If the person 
escaped unharmed, he was held to be innocent. 4 This was a 
favorite form of trial with Charlemagne, king of the Franks. 

1 Hallam's Middle Ages, " Weregild." 2 See next paragraph. 

3 Lea's Sziperstition and Force, p. 125. 

4 Blackstone's Commentaries, "Ordeal, Trial by." 



56 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

Another way of performing the fire-ordeal was by running 
through the flame of two fires built close together, or by walking 
over live brands; hence the phrase "to haul over the coals." It 
was in this way that the first crusaders in the eleventh century 
tried a priest who was accused of deceit ; and just at the close of 
the fifteenth century the celebrated Savonarola, in Italy, consented 
to allow a companion monk to walk through the flames to settle a 
dispute relating to certain claims made by the reformer. In this 
latter case, however, some difficulties in arranging the prelimina- 
ries of the ordeal, and a sudden dash of rain, which put out the 
fire, prevented the trial. 

The ordeal by water was of two kinds, by hot water and by cold. 
In the hot water ordeal the accused person thrust his arm into 
boiling water, and if no hurt was visible upon the arm three days 
after the operation, the party was considered guiltless. When we 
speak of one's being " in hot water," we use an expression which 
had its origin in this ordeal. 

In the cold water trial the suspected person was thrown into a 
stream or pond : if he floated, he was held guilty ; if he sank, 
innocent. The water, it was believed, would reject the guilty, 
but receive the innocent into its bosom. The practice common 
in Europe until a very recent date of trying supposed witches by 
throwing them into a pond of water to see whether they would 
sink or float, grew out of this superstition. 1 

The trial by combat, or wager of battle, as it was called, was 
resorted to in the belief that God would give victory to the right 
— a theory upon which nations sometimes go to war, making an 
appeal to the "God of battles." 

According to Montesquieu, this form of trial grew out of the 

1 There was a difference, however, between the old ordeal and the later 
trial, which was strictly not an ordeal at all, it being no longer an appeal to 
the decision of God, but merely a test as to change in specific gravity, the 
superstition now consisting in the belief that the body of a witch became, 
through communication with evil spirits, imponderable like them, and thus 
capable of being spirited through the air. 



ORDEALS. .57 

custom which allowed a person accused of a crime to clear him- 
self by simply swearing that he was innocent, provided he could 
get a sufficient number of his friends or neighbors to swear that 
he was telling the truth. 1 The number of concurring witnesses 
was dependent upon the seriousness of the charge or the rank of 
the person making the oath. As many as seventy-two were 
sometimes required. Now this privilege was liable to abuse, and 
the only resort left to the injured person in such case was to 
challenge the perjurer to submit to the judgment of God as it 
should be pronounced in a solemn judicial duel. 2 

This form of trial grew into great favor. Even the judge in 
some cases resorted to it to maintain the authority and dignity of 
his court. To a person who had disregarded a summons the judge 
would send a challenge in this form : " I sent for thee, and thou 
didst not think it worth thy while to come ; I demand therefore 
satisfaction for this thy contempt." Religious disputes also were 
sometimes settled by this sort of " martial logic." " In the eleventh 
century a contest between two rival liturgies in Spain was decided 
in this way. A pair of knights in complete armor fought and 
decided which was the orthodox one." The modern dual may 
perhaps be regarded as a relic of this form of trial. 

The ordeal was frequently performed by deputy, that is, one 
person for hire or for the sake of friendship would undertake it for 
another ; hence the expression " to go through fire and water to 
serve one." Especially was such substitution common in the judi- 

1 In course of time this absurd form of the oath was changed, so that the 
compurgators, as the witnesses were called, simply swore that they believed 
the oath of the accused to be true and clean. 

2 The wager of law, as the purgation by oath was called, is not to be 
reckoned among the ordeals, as it lacked the essential element of an ordeal, 
namely, the appeal to the judgment of heaven. In connection with what has 
been said in the text respecting Montesquieu's views on the relation of this 
form of trial to that by battle, it ought, perhaps, to be added that others think 
the latter was introduced into jurisprudence as a regulation of the right of 
private war, as a limitation by law and rule of the barbarian's right to avenge 
his own wrongs. 



5S FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

cial duel, as women and ecclesiastics were generally forbidden to 
appear personally in the lists. There are instances mentioned, 
however, where even women performed the wager of battle ; in 
which case, to equalize the conditions, the man was buried to the 
waist, with his left hand tied behind his back. 

The champions, as the deputies were called, became in time a 
regular class in society, like the gladiators in ancient Rome. Re- 
ligious houses and chartered towns hired champions at a regular 
salary to defend all the cases to which they might become a party. 
In order that the champion might be stimulated to do his best for 
the party he represented, his hand was cut off if he suffered him- 
self to be worsted in the combat. 1 

The management of the first-mentioned ordeals fell into the 
hands of the clergy, and of course fraud and collusion were often 
practised. It was not very difficult for the priests to carry through 
the ordeal without harm the person whose innocence they were 
interested in establishing. 2 Doubtless they sometimes employed 

1 Montesquieu's The Spirit of Laws, vol. II., p. 232. 

2 There were many other forms of ordeal, besides those we have given, in 
use among the different Teutonic tribes, some of which were plainly native 
customs, while others seem to have been introduced by the Christian priests. 
Thus, there was the ordeal by consecrated bread ; if the morsel strangled the 
person, he was adjudged guilty. From this form of trial arose the expression 
" may this morsel be my last." In what was called the ordeal of the bier the 
person charged with murder was made to touch the body of the dead man; if 
the body stirred or blood flowed afresh from the wound, the man was held 
guilty of the murder. 

Such ordeals are found among all barbarous and superstitious people. The 
Hindus had many curious ones. In one the person accused of a crime was 
forced to swim across a river filled with crocodiles; if caught by the reptiles, 
that was conclusive proof of his guilt. In another the accused was first care- 
fully weighed; then a band upon which was written the charge was bound 
upon his forehead, and he was weighed again : if he weighed more than at 
first, he was pronounced guilty. Proof by ordeal was also known among the 
Hebrews; see Numbers v. 11-31 ; Joshua vii. 16-18. The combat between 
David and Goliath, being an appeal to the judgment of Heaven, possesses the 
essential element of the judicial duel. We also find an ordeal in the test pro- 
posed by Elijah to the prophets of Baal, — / Kings xviii. 1 7-40. 



TILE REVIVAL OF THE ROMAN LAW. 59 

the devices and tricks used by the mountebank or sleight-of-hand 
performer at the present day, which enable him, unhurt, to handle 
fire, to take live coals in his mouth, and to do other things equally 
marvellous in the eyes of the ignorant. 

The Revival of the Roman Law. — Now these codes of the 
barbarians, the character of which we have simply suggested by 
the preceding illustrations, gradually displaced the Roman law in 
all those countries where the two systems at first existed alongside 
each other, save in Italy and Southern France, where the great 
preponderance of the Latin population, in connection with other 
circumstances, caused the barbarian laws gradually to give way to 
the Roman. But, after a while, as a deeper darkness settled over 
Europe, these written laws of the barbarians also fell into disuse. 
The spirit and principles, however, of these early collections ani- 
mated and shaped the new customs and usages which grew up to 
meet the changing needs of society. That is to say, speaking gen- 
erally, the customs and practices that had force in the greater 
part of Europe during the earlier mediaeval centuries were Teu- 
tonic rather than Roman. 

But this supremacy of the maxims and customs of the barba- 
rians over the law-system of the Romans was destined not to be 
permanent. The admirable jurisprudence of Rome was bound to 
assert its superiority. Thus, about the close of the eleventh 
century, there was a great revival in the study of the Roman law 
as embodied in the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian, and in the 
course of a century or two this became either the groundwork or 
a strong modifying element in the jurisprudence of almost all the 
peoples of Europe. 

What took place may be illustrated by reference to the fate of 
the Teutonic languages in Gaul, Italy, and Spain. As the barba- 
rian tongues, after maintaining a place in those countries for two 
or three centuries, at length gave place to the superior Latin, 
which became the basis of the new Romance languages, so now in 
the domain of law the barbarian maxims and customs, though 
holding their place more persistently, likewise finally give way, 



60 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

almost everywhere and in a greater or less degree, to the more 
excellent law-system of the Empire. Rome must fulfil her destiny 
and give laws to the nations. 

Though longer delayed in their adoption, the law maxims and 
principles of the Empire at length became more widely spread 
and influential than the Latin speech; for Germany, which never 
gave up her Teutonic tongue, now, through the relation of the Ger- 
man kings to the restored Roman Empire, of which we shall hear 
much hereafter, adopted the Roman law-system, to the degree of 
making its principles the basis of her jurisprudence. And even 
England, though she clung tenaciously to her Teutonic customs 
and maxims, just as she held on to her own Teutonic speech, 
could not escape the influence of the Roman jurisprudence, which 
penetrated there, and, to a certain extent, chiefly through the 
courts of the Church, modified English law, just as the Latin in an 
indirect way finally modified and enriched the English speech, 
while leaving it the same in groundwork and structure. " Our 
laws," says Lord Bacon, " are mixed as our language ; and as our 
language is so much the richer, the laws are the more complete." 

Under the influence of the classical revival, the various ordeals, 
which were already disappearing before the growing enlightenment 
of the age and the steady opposition of the Church, or rather of 
the papal authority, rapidly gave way to modes of trial more con- 
sonant with reason and the spirit of the civil law. 



THE ERA OF JUSTINIAN. 61 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST. 

The Era of Justinian (a.d. 527-565). — At the time of the 
dethronement of Augustulus by Odoacer, the imperial throne in 
the East was held by Zeno», a weak and obscure prince. To 
him it was that the crown and purple robe of the Western 
Emperors were sent as an acknowledgment that he was now the 
sole representative of the power and authority of the Caesars. 

During the fifty years immediately following this event, Zeno 
and his successors Anastasius and Justin, struggled hard and 
doubtfully to withstand the waves of the barbarian inundation 
which constantly threatened to overwhelm Constantinople with 
the same awful calamities that had befallen the imperial city of 
the West. Had the new Rome — the destined refuge for a thou- 
sand years of Grseco-Roman learning and culture — also gone 
down at this time before the storm, the loss to the cause of civil- 
ization would have been incalculable. 

Fortunately, in the year 527 there ascended the Eastern throne 
a prince of unusual ability, to whom fortune gave a general of 
such rare genius that his name has been allotted a place in the 
short list of the great commanders of the world. Justinian was 
the name of the prince, and Belisarius that of the soldier. The 
sovereign has given name to the period, which is called after him 
the " Era of Justinian " ; but it is mainly the conquests and 
achievements of his general that cause the annals of the period to 
fill so prominent a place in the records of the Empire, or rather, 
we should say, in the pages of world-history ; for, in the words of 
Finlay, " the unerring instinct of mankind has fixed on this period 
as one of the greatest in man's annals." 



62 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

We shall first notice, very briefly, the wars of Justinian, — the 
management of which was entrusted, for the most part, to his 
famous general Belisarius, whose relations to his jealous and 
ungrateful master were strikingly like those sustained by the re- 
nowned Stilicho to the unworthy Honorius ; afterwards we shall 
say something of his works of peace, which, far more than the 
conquests of his arms, entitle the prince to our praise and ad- 
miration. 

The Conquest of Africa. — Ambition and religious motives 
united in urging Justinian to endeavor to wrest out of the hands of 
the barbarians those provinces of the Empire in the West upon 
which they had seized. It seemed to him a reproach and dis- 
grace that the sovereigns of the new Rome should appear unable 
to retain the territories won by the valor of the consuls and Caesars 
of the old. He coveted for himself the honor of restoring to their 
ancient and most extended circuit the boundaries of the Roman 
State. 

To these natural promptings of pride and ambition were added 
the persuasions of religion. The barbarians that had taken pos- 
session of the Western provinces were, as we have learned, with 
the exception of the Franks, followers of Arius, whose doctrines 
had been declared heretical by the Nicene Council. But these 
semi-Christians were, nevertheless, zealous converts, and making 
up in zeal what they lacked in orthodoxy, became, some of them, 
and notably the Vandals, furious persecutors of the professors of 
the Athanasian creed. A strong appeal was thus made to the 
piety of the Emperor to deliver the true Catholic Church of the 
West out of the hands of the barbarian heretics. 

The state of affairs in Africa invited the intervention of Justinian 
first in that quarter. The Vandal king Hilderic, who, animated 
by less of the spirit of persecution than his predecessors, had 
restored to liberty many of the imprisoned bishops and priests of 
the orthodox Church and granted freedom of worship to his sub- 
jects, had been pushed aside and his throne usurped by Gelimer, 
a zealous and bigoted Arian. Justinian sent an embassy to expos- 



THE CONQUEST OE AFRICA. 63 

tulate with the usurper, and demand the restoration of the throne 
to Hilderic. Gelimer replied to the imperial commissioners with 
that haughty insolence characteristic of his race. Justinian now 
resolved upon war. But such was the terror of the Vandal name 
that the subjects of the Emperor declaimed against such a distant 
and hazardous enterprise. For a moment Justinian wavered in his 
purpose. But a zealous ecclesiastic reanimated the hesitating 
resolution of the Emperor, by declaring that he had seen a vision, 
in which God commanded that the war should be immediately 
undertaken. " It is the will of Heaven, O Emperor ! " exclaimed 
the bishop, " that you should not abandon your holy enterprise for 
the deliverance of the African Church. The God of battles will 
march before your standard, and disperse your enemies, who are 
the enemies of his Son." 

The mixed character of the forces that gathered at Constanti- 
nople for the execution of the holy undertaking reveals to us how 
utterly un-Roman the Empire in the East had already become. 
The army, numbering about 200,000 men, was composed almost 
entirely of barbarian mercenaries ; — Goths, Huns, Thracians, Isau- 
rians, Parthians, and Persians filled the motley ranks. And, as if 
to illustrate how completely the rulers of Constantinople had come 
to rely upon barbarian talent and valor, we see the expedition en- 
trusted to the command of a general born as a Thracian peasant. 
But Belisanus, for he was the leader of whom we speak, was 
worthy of the confidence that his master reposed in his fidelity 
and genius. Already in five years' warfare upon the Persian fron- 
tier he had illustrated his rare qualities as a commander. 

The results of the expedition have been spoken of in a previous 
chapter, in connection with the kingdom of the Vandals, and so 
need not detain us long in this place. The empire of the barba- 
rians was completely destroyed, and 8,000,000 of African provin- 
cials, who claimed the name of Romans, were delivered from the 
rule of a nation of 600,000 savage intruders. Africa was again 
united to the Empire, and its affairs were administered by impe- 
rial officers who took the title of Exarchs (a.d. 533). 



64 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

The Conquest of Italy. — The subversion of the Vandal power in 
Africa was quickly followed by the destruction of the Ostrogothic 
kingdom in Italy. In the year 535 Belisarius disembarked his 
army, recruited by many Vandals who had enlisted under the 
standard of their conquerer, upon the shores of Sicily, then in the 
hands of the Goths, and in a single campaign wrested that island 
from their grasp. The next year he crossed the Sicilian straits 
and entered upon the conquest of the peninsula. Naples was 
taken by stratagem after a brief siege. The gates of Rome were 
opened by its inhabitants to the Deliverer, as Belisarius was hailed, 
and the Gothic garrison fled toward the north. 

Vitiges, the brave and able king of the Goths, rallied his war- 
riors from one end of Italy to the other, for the maintenance of 
the rich possessions which the valor of their fathers had won. 
Belisarius with his little army was shut up within the walls of 
Rome, and there besieged by an army of 150,000 barbarians. 
The investment lasted an entire year, during which time the Goths 
attempted again and again to carry the defences by assault, but 
without success. 50,000 barbarians are estimated to have fallen 
before the walls of the capital. Nor were the losses of the 
besieged any less considerable. A large proportion of the popu- 
lation of the city perished from hunger, disease, and the various 
accidents of war. The ancient monuments suffered irreparable 
damage from their material being used in the construction of 
defenses. The stately mausoleum of Hadrian was converted into 
a fortress, and the masterpieces of Greek and Roman art which 
embellished it were used as ammunition, and thrown down upon 
the heads of the besiegers. 

During the siege Belisarius sent repeated and urgent embassies 
to his master at Constantinople, asking for immediate relief. 
Small reinforcements were at length thrown into the city ; and the 
Goths, despairing of the reduction of the place, broke up camp 
and commenced a hasty retreat northward, closely pursued by 
Belisarius, who at last drove them within the walls of Ravenna. 
Vitiges was finally compelled to surrender and was sent to Con- 



THE FATE OF BELISARIUS. 65 

stantinople, where he was kindly received by the Emperor and 
given ample estates in return for the kingdom he had lost. 

At this moment, when the conquest of Italy was all but accom- 
plished, the Emperor recalled Belisarius, and soon the Goths, 
under a new leader, Totila by name, were again in possession of 
Rome. Belisarius was now sent back to regain what had been 
thus foolishly lost, and Rome again changed masters. But the 
jealous Emperor did not support his general with either troops 
or money, and finally recalling him, abandoned Italy to the 
barbarians. 

But the entreaties of the Pope and of the Italians at length 
moved Justinian to attempt again the expulsion of their enemies. 
The command of the imperial forces was this time entrusted to the 
famous eunuch Narses, who, in the execution of the undertaking, 
evinced talents second only to those of Belisarius. He soon ob- 
tained possession of Rome, this making the fifth time that the 
unfortunate city had changed hands during the reign of Justinian. 
All Italy, after much hard fighting in the north, was now freed 
from the barbarians, and became once more a part of the Roman 
Empire (a.d. 554). 

The Fate of Belisarius. — Justinian's possessions in Eastern 
Europe were constantly harried by marauding bands of Slavo- 
nians, who every year crossed the boundaries of the Empire and 
spread dismay throughout the provinces of Macedonia and Thrace. 
In the winter of the year 559 an army of these barbarians crossed 
the Danube on the ice, and finally pitched their tents within sight of 
the walls of Constantinople. The commanding spirit of the old 
soldier Belisarius alone saved the capital from falling a prey to the 
marauders. 

This was the last service which Belisarius rendered to his sove- 
reign or to his country. " He had conquered extensive realms 
and mighty nations, and led kings captive to the footstool of Jus- 
tinian, the Law-giver of civilization." But the jealousy of the 
Emperor not only led him to withhold from his ever-faithful gen- 
eral the reward due to his genius and deeds, but inclined him 



66 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

to listen to every whisper of envy and malice, and finally induced 
him, on an unproved and doubtless unjust charge of taking part in 
a conspiracy against his life, to imprison him and confiscate his 
property. In a short time, however, he was given his liberty ; but 
the heart of the old soldier — he was now well advanced in years 
— seems to have been broken by this last injustice of his master, 
and he died within a few months after his release. His ungrateful 
sovereign followed him in less than a year. 1 

Rebuilding of the Church of St. Sophia. — Justinian was the 
Hadrian of the East. His taste for architecture induced him to 
spend enormous sums upon the embellishment of his capital, which 
he so adorned with the triumphs of Art that it seemed a not un- 
worthy successor of the once imperial city of the Tiber. He 
rebuilt with increased splendor the church of St. Sophia, which, 
founded by the piety of Constantine, had been burned during a 
sedition early in Justinian's reign. The edifice still stands, although 
the Cross that formerly surmounted the dome has been replaced by 
the Moslem Crescent. The admiration which the stately structure 
never fails of exciting in the mind of every beholder justifies the 
pride of the imperial builder, who, in the midst of the dedication 
service, is said to have exclaimed, " I have vanquished thee, O 
Solomon ! " 

The Defenses of the Empire. — Justinian did not confine his 
attention to the erection of monumental or sacred buildings alone ; 
in every part of his dominion he constructed hospitals, aqueducts, 
and other works of a utilitarian nature. Among these last-named 
works we may place those constructions of a defensive character 
wherewith he girt the cities of the Empire and fortified all its 
exposed frontiers. (In the case of some of the works enumerated 
below, Justinian simply restored or strengthened old defenses.) 

1 There is no foundation for the story with which romancers have embel- 
lished the close of the life of Belisarius. " That he was deprived of his eyes, 
and reduced by envy to beg his bread, ' Give a penny to Belisarius the gen- 
eral ! ' is a fiction of later times, which has obtained credit, or rather favor, as 
a strange example of the vicissitudes of fortune." — Gibbon. 



INTRODUCTION OF SILK MANUFACTURE. 67 

The Danube presented almost one continuous series of towers, 
fortified camps, walled towns, and extended lines of ramparts, 
designed to protect the provinces in that quarter from the inroads 
of the barbarians. For the protection of Greece the Pass of Ther- 
mopylae was strongly fortified with walls, and the Peloponnesus was 
protected by ramparts drawn across the Isthmus of Corinth. The 
tongue of land upon which Constantinople stands was also similarly 
fortified by a wall running from shore to shore, at a distance of 
twenty-eight miles from the capital. In the far East the mountain 
passes between the Euxine and the Caspian, through which the 
hordes of Scythia poured into the countries of the south, were 
defended by strong gates, and by ramparts which ran up the flanks 
of the mountains to their impassable summits. 

Fortifications of a different character were needed along the 
Mesopotamian frontier, — the dividing line of the Roman and 
Persian empires. Ramparts that might check marauding tribes 
would be of no use against the forces and military engines of 
a state like Persia, the only civilized power that now contested 
with the rulers at Constantinople the sovereignty of the world. So 
all along this eastern boundary of the Empire, the cities were con- 
verted into strong fortresses, with defensive works capable of with- 
standing the operations of a regular siege. 

This enumeration of the defenses of the Empire will illustrate 
better than anything else the dangers that threatened it and the 
nature of its assailants. 

These fortifications accomplished very imperfectly the purpose 
for which they were intended. In Europe especially was this true, 
the provinces there being annually harried by the barbarians from 
the Adriatic to the Hellespont. The rulers of Constantinople 
needed to learn the truth so early acquired by the Spartans, that 
the only reliable defense of a state is the valor of its citizens. 

Introduction of Silk Manufacture. — The introduction and 
establishment in Europe of the industry of silk manufacture de- 
serves special notice as one of the important matters of a reign so 
crowded with Significant events as to render it an epoch in history. 



68 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

Before the time of Justinian the markets of the West were sup- 
plied with silk from China, whence the precious fabric was brought 
to Europe, sometimes by sea, but more usually over the caravan 
routes across Central Asia. Some varieties of the silk-worm were 
raised in Europe previous to this time ; but the amount and 
quality of the fibre produced by these were inferior to that spun by 
the mulberry- feeding worm of the East. 

The Chinese guarded jealously their industry, and would not 
allow the worms to be carried out of the country. Their watchful 
ness, however, was eluded by two Persian monks, who having con 
cealed in a hollow cane some eggs of the silk-worm, made their 
way out of the Empire without detection, and finally reached 
Constantinople safely with these " spoils of the East," — spoils far 
more valuable than any which had ever been borne to the old 
Rome by her most successful generals. The eggs were safely 
hatched and the species was rapidly propagated, so that in a short 
time the silk products of Europe far surpassed those of China. 

The Code of Justinian. — Among all the acts of Justinian, that 
which conferred the most signal benefit upon succeeding ages and 
which entitles his name to a place among the few illustrious princes 
whose authority and opportunities have been devoted to advanc- 
ing the well-being of their fellow-men, was the collection and pub- 
lication of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the " Body of the Roman 
Law." This work embodied all the law knowledge of the ancient 
Romans, and was the most precious legacy of Rome to the world. 
Upon it is founded, as we have already learned, the law-systems 
of several of the leading states of Modern Europe, while the juris- 
prudence of all the others has been more or less influenced by it. 

Since we have in another volume, 1 in connection with Latin lit- 
erature, given some account of this great work, we shall now con- 
tent ourselves with this simple reference to the undertaking, that 
it may be given its proper place among the significant labors of 
the Emperor whose reign we are reviewing. 

Closing of the Schools of Athens. — It was during the reign 

1 Outlines of Ancient History, p. 466. 



CALAMITIES OF JUSTINIAN'S REIGN. 69 

of Justinian that the schools of rhetoric and philosophy at 
Athens were closed by imperial edict. Their suppression excites 
our astonishment, as the act at first blush seems strangely at vari- 
ance with the disposition of a sovereign to whom we are indebted 
for the preservation and transmission of the laws and legal learn- 
ing of the Roman period. 

It was, in part at least, his religious scruples which led the 
Emperor to close the Athenian schools. Their teachings and 
methods were deemed by Justinian to be unfriendly to Christi- 
anity, as they set reason before faith ; and for this cause, together 
with political reasons perhaps, he issued the decree which forever 
silenced the eloquence of the Attic Academy and Lyceum. 

The intellectual history of Hellas begins in the sixth century 
before Christ with the Seven Sages, and now it ends in the sixth 
century after Christ with the Seven Exiles. These seven friends 
— Diogenes, Hermias, Simplicius, Eulalius, Damascius, Priscian, 
and Isidore by name — resolved to seek in Persia that freedom of 
thought which the royal edict forbade them to exercise in their 
own land. But in that distant country the exile philosophers found 
the Zoroastrian priests quite as intolerant as the Christian bishops, 
and, although they had been kindly received by Chosroes I., the 
Persian king, they soon returned to Europe, where they lived in 
silence and died in obscurity. With them passed away that long 
line of Grecian sages who, for twelve hundred years, had occu- 
pied the proud position of teachers of the world. 

Calamities of Justinian's Reign. — Although so many events 
of importance and advantage to mankind signalized the reign of 
Justinian, it was a time of almost unparalleled woes and sufferings. 
During this period the scourges of war, pestilence, and famine 
sensibly diminished the number of the human race. Some of the 
fairest regions of the earth, depopulated at this time, have re- 
mained without inhabitants up to the present day. The wars in 
Africa against the Vandals, and the tumults arising from religious 
disputes, wasted the population of that region ; the Gothic, wars, 
which drew their slow length through twenty years, cost Italy mil- 



70 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

lions of her population ; the Persian wars resulted in frightful losses 
of soldiers and of the inhabitants of cities; while the constant 
incursions of the outside barbarians — Turanians, Slavonians, and 
Teutons — kept the land in almost every quarter of the Empire 
wet with blood. 

The hostile agencies of nature combined, too, with the destruc- 
tive and malignant energies of man himself, and seemed to threaten 
the extermination of the human species. Earthquakes following 
one another with unparalleled frequency and violence, rolled be- 
neath cities and provinces, and carried death and dismay every- 
where. Berytus and Antioch on the Syrian coast were destroyed, 
an immense number of persons perishing in the overthrow of the 
latter city. Famine prepared the way for the awful pestilence 
which, bred in Egypt, penetrated into every part of the civilized 
world. The very air seemed to bear a deadly taint, — caught, 
perhaps, from the unburied bodies that everywhere poured their 
poison into it, — so that the element of life was changed into an 
infectious and fatal thing, which neither the frost of winter nor the 
fresh breezes from the unaffected regions of the earth appeared to 
possess any power to purify and restore to a health-giving condi- 
tion. This terrible scourge fell upon the Empire in the fifteenth 
year of Justinian's reign, and did not cease its ravages until fifty- 
two years after its first visitation. 

State of the Empire at the Accession of Heraclius (a.d. 6io). 
— Justinian was followed by Justin, Tiberius, Maurice, and Phocas 
the Usurper, whose checkered reigns bring us to that of Heraclius 
(a.d. 610-641), a prince about whose name gather many matters 
of interest and importance. 

About this time Chosroes II., king of Persia, wrested from the 
Empire the fortified cities that guarded the Euphratean frontier, 
and overran all Syria. The True Cross was torn from the church 
at Jerusalem and carried off in triumph to Persia. Egypt, too, 
was seized, Chosroes, in imitation of Cambyses, marching up the 
valley of the Nile to the confines of Ethiopia. Asia Minor was 
also overrun, and the Persian army never halted until its tents 



THE ACCESSION OF HER AC LI US. 71 

were pitched upon the Bosphorus, within sight of the domes of 
Constantinople. Europe was again threatened with a Persian 
invasion, such as in the days of Xerxes had spread terror through- 
out the cities of Greece. History here so strangely repeats itself, 
that the record of these times reads like some displaced pages of 
the Graeco- Persian wars a thousand years before. 

To add to the gloom and distress of the inhabitants of the 
Empire, the Avars were desolating its European provinces, and 
spreading their ravages to the very gates of Byzantium. They 
even carried off bodily a vast multitude of the citizens of the 
capital, who had been beguiled beyond the walls to participate in 
festivities that were to celebrate a lasting peace between the bar- 
barians and the Emperor. 

Thus beset on every side, Heraclius resolved to abandon Con- 
stantinople, escape to Carthage, and make that city the seat of the 
imperial government. 1 His ships were already packed with the 
furniture of the palace, when the patriarch of Constantinople 
interposed. He exhorted the disheartened Emperor never to 
despair of the cause of the Empire and of the Church, and by 
entreaties and gentle commands led him to abandon his desperate 
resolution, and to take a solemn oath that he would never remove 
the throne from the spot where Constantine and the will of God 
had established it. 

Heraclius now endeavored to obtain some terms of peace with 
Chosroes that might stay the course of his victorious arms and 
save at least something to the Empire. But that haughty mon- 
arch, doubly insolent and confident in the midst of his triumphs, 

1 A variety of motives, doubtless, led Heraclius to this determination, just 
as Constantine was influenced by many considerations when he transferred the 
capital from the Tiber to the Bosphorus. The imperial government, Roman 
in its spirit and tendencies, was in antagonism with the native populations of 
the East. It was, in fact, regarded by its subjects as a foreign domination, and 
was in no sense national. By removing the seat of government to Carthage, 
which was a thoroughly Roman city, Heraclius might hope to get rid of the 
Greek influence that surrounded the court at Constantinople, and to strengthen 
his administration by basing it on a loyal Roman population. 



72 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

only replied, " I will never give peace to the Emperor of Rome 
till he has abjured his crucified God, and embraced the worship 
of the Sun." However, by humiliating concessions on the part 
of Heraclius, a treaty of peace was arranged, whereby he bound 
himself to pay the Persian king an annual tribute of " a thousand 
talents of gold, a thousand of silver, a thousand silk robes, a thou- 
sand horses, and a thousand virgins." 

The Expedition of Heraclius. — Heraclius evidently signed this 
disgraceful treaty simply to gain time. ' To redeem the fortunes of 
the Empire he now immediately set about organizing an army, the 
expenses of which were met by stripping the churches of their 
treasures ; the priests consenting to this on condition that the 
articles should be replaced after the crisis was passed. 

With his forces collected, Heraclius placed them aboard the 
transports that had been provided, and leaving the Persians in 
front of his capital, sailed away to the plains of Issus, in the north- 
east corner of the Mediterranean, the spot made famous by the 
overthrow of the army of Darius III. by Alexander, 333 B.C. 
The inhabitants of the surrounding country, animated by religious 
ardor, flocked to his standard, eager to avenge the sacrileges of 
the fire-worshippers. Upon the very field that had proved so 
fatal to them a thousand years before, the Persians were drawn 
into an engagement which resulted in a second victory of the 
West over the East. Placing his troops in winter quarters, Hera- 
clius now returned to Constantinople, as his presence there was 
demanded by threatening movements of the Avars. 

With the barbarians composed, the Emperor set out on an ex- 
pedition quite as worthy a place among the records of brilliant 
military exploits as the famous March of the Ten Thousand Greeks. 

The plan of Heraclius was to penetrate into Persia itself, and 
by a bold attack upon the capital of Chosroes, to force him to 
recall the armies that were distressing the provinces of the Empire. 
For the accomplishment of this daring undertaking, — which 
presents a striking parallel to the invasion of Africa by Scipio, in 
order to compel the Carthaginians to call Hannibal out of Italy 



THE BATTLE OE NINEVEH. 73 

to the defence of Carthage, — Heraclius chose a company of only 
5,000 men, with whom he sailed through the Black Sea to the 
port of Trebizond. Having recruited his little army from among 
the hardy mountaineers of Armenia, he pushed into the heart of 
Persia. One city after another fell into his hands ; and in revenge 
for the insults heaped by the infidels upon the Christian churches, 
the altars of the fire-worshippers were everywhere overturned and 
the fires upon them quenched. Thebarmes, the place held sacred 
by tradition as the birthplace of Zoroaster, was laid in ruins, in 
special revenge for the desecration of the holy places of Jerusalem. 

Trembling for the safety of his throne, Chosroes hastily recalled 
his armies from the remote provinces whither their victorious 
career had led them, and as they arrived, disposed them in such a 
manner as to form a perfect cordon about the little army of the 
brave Heraclius. The new recruits were ready to desert, so inevi- 
table seemed the doom that hung over the beleaguered camp. 
But the Persian armies were as powerless now to withstand the 
valor of the West as they were ten centuries before. Being scat- 
tered in every direction, they sought safety behind the walls of 
their cities. After besieging and capturing one of these, Hera- 
clius set out on his return. Crossing the mountains that separate 
the table-lands of Persia from the plains of Assyria, he descended 
their western slopes, crossed the Tigris, and rested at last in the 
Mesopotamian fortress of Amida. 

This daring expedition of Heraclius, although it doubtless saved 
the Empire from immediate dismemberment and inspired its in- 
habitants with new courage, by no means ended the war. Chos- 
roes now in turn penetrated to the heart of the Roman Empire, 
and laid siege to Constantinople, in which enterprise he was aided 
by the united hordes of the Tartars and Slavonians. But the 
attempt was unsuccessful, and he was obliged, after sustaining 
heavy losses, to abandon the siege. 

The Battle of Nineveh (a.d. 627). — The struggle between the 
two rival empires was at last decided by a terrible combat upon 
the field of Nineveh. 






74 FIRST PERIOD. —THE DARK AGES. % 

On the ground broken by the mounds of the old Assyrian cap- 
ital, the Persian army was drawn up to offer battle to Heraclius. 
Not far away was the field of Arbela, where, a thousand years 
before, half a million of Persians, disputing the march of Alex- 
ander, had been cut to pieces, and the last king of the Ancient 
Empire driven a fugitive among the mountains. The strange cor- 
respondence that the present series of events had maintained to 
the course of events then, might have awakened, one would think, 
dismal forebodings in the mind of Chosroes. But his orders to 
his general, Rhazates, were to commit the fortunes of the empire 
to a single and decisive battle. Through one long day and far 
into the night the opposing lines pushed each other back and 
forth over the bloody field. The result was the almost total an- 
nihilation of the Persian army. 

Chosroes sought safety within the walls of his capital city, 
Ctesiphon, upon the lower Tigris, where he met the fate almost 
sure to overtake an unfortunate monarch in the East. One of his 
sons headed a revolt, put to death eighteen brothers who might 
dispute the succession with him, and cast the aged Chosroes into 
prison. In a few days grief or violence ended his life. With him 
passed away the glory of the Second Persian Empire. 

The new king, Siroes, negotiated a treaty of peace with Heraclius, 
in which he gave up all the conquests of his father, surrendered 
the prisoners and standards that had fallen into the hands of the 
Persians, and restored the True Cross, which had been carried off 
by Chosroes. The articles of this treaty left the boundaries of the 
two rival powers unchanged. Heraclius, whose rare abilities, desper- 
ate daring, and resolution had rescued the Empire and Church 
from threatened destruction, was received at Constantinople with 
transports of enthusiasm. 

The Approaching Storm. — The two combatants in the fierce 
struggle which we have been watching were too much absorbed 
in their contentions to notice the approach of a storm from the 
deserts of Arabia, — a storm destined to overwhelm both alike 
in its destructive course. 



THE EMPIRE BECOMES GREEK'. 75 

Within a few years from the date of the Battle of Nineveh the 
Saracens entered upon their surprising career of conquest, which 
in a short time completely changed the face of the entire East, 
and set the Crescent, the emblem of a new faith, alike above the 
fire-altars of Persia and the churches of the Empire. Only a few 
years elapsed after the death of the great Chosroes II. before the 
dominions of the Persian kings were overrun by the Arabian con- 
querors ; and Heraclius himself lived to see — so cruel are the 
vicissitudes of fortune — the very provinces which he had wrested 
from the hands of the fire-worshippers, in the possession of the 
more insolent followers of the False Prophet, and the Crescent 
planted within sight of the walls of Constantinople. 1 

The Empire becomes Greek. — But these seeming misfor- 
tunes, so far as they concerned the Roman Empire, were really 
blessings in disguise. The Empire was actually strengthened 
by what it lost. The conquests of the Saracens cut off those 
provinces that had the smallest Greek element, and thus ren- 
dered the population subject to the Emperor more homogeneous, 
more thoroughly Greek. The Roman element disappeared, and 
though the government still retained the imperial character im- 
pressed upon it by the conquerors of the world, the court of Con- 
stantinople became Greek in tone, spirit, and manners. Hence, 
instead of longer applying to the Empire the designation Roman, 
we shall from this on call it the Greek or Byzantine Empire. 2 

1 About six years before his death, despairing of protecting Syria, Hera- 
clius removed from Jerusalem to Constantinople the True Cross, which he had 
recovered from the Persians. " Farewell, Syria ! " were his words, as he turned 
from the consecrated land which he knew must be given up to the enemies of 
his faith. Heraclius died A.D. 641. 

2 Finlay thinks the term Roman no longer applicable after the reign of 
Justinian II. (A.D. 710), the last sovereign of the family of Heraclius. (See 
his Greece under the Romans.) After the year 800, the date of the estab- 
lishment of the Western or Teutonic Empire by Charlemagne, it is proper to 
call the Byzantine Empire, in opposition to the one in the West, the Eastern 
Empire. This latter term, however, should not be used before that date. See 
chapter VI., note to paragraph headed " Restoration of the Empire in the West." 



76 FIE ST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

We shall trace no further as a separate story the fortunes of the 
Eastern Emperors. In the eighth century the so-called Icono- 
clastic controversy, which began under Leo the Isaurian (718-741), 
will draw our attention to them ; and then again in the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries the Crusades will once more bring their 
affairs into prominence, and we shall see a line of Latin princes 
seated for a time (from 1204 to 1261) upon the throne of Con- 
stantine. Finally, in the year 1453, we shall witness the capture 
of Constantinople by the Turks, which disaster closes the long 
and checkered history of the Grseco-Roman Empire in the East. 



ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE ARABS. 77 



CHAPTER V. 

MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. 

Origin and Character of the Arabs. — The Arabs, who are 
now about to play their surprising part in history, are, after the 
Hebrews, the most important people of the Semitic race. They 
trace their descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. 1 The 
name Saracen, applied to them by the ancient classical writers, is 
of doubtful origin, but seems to come from two Arabic words 
meaning " Children of the Desert." They are divided into two 
distinct classes — dwellers in towns and dwellers in tents. It is to 
the latter class alone that the term Bedouin is properly applied. 
These nomad Arabs, who comprise probably about one fifth of the 
population of Arabia, have never been better described than in 
the Bible account of their origin, where Hagar, while comforted 
with the promise that her son shall become the father of a great 
nation, is told that " he shall be a wild man and his hand shall be 
against every man and every man's hand shall be against him." 

Secure in their inaccessible deserts, the Arabs have never as a 
nation bowed their necks to a foreign conqueror, although por- 
tions of the Arabian peninsula have been repeatedly subjugated by 
different races. 

Religious Condition of Arabia before Mohammed. — The re- 
ligion of the Arabs before the reforms of Mohammed was a sort 

1 The Ishmaelite legend can of course only be taken to indicate a com- 
paratively late and local movement. It seems probable that Arabia was settled 
by immigrants from Africa, — from Abyssinia and Egypt, — who passed into 
the southern part of the peninsula over the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and into 
the northern by the Isthmus of Suez. This double movement, in connection 
with subsequent modifying influences, may explain the dual division of the 
Arabians mentioned a little further on in the text. 



78 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

of Sabseanism, a worship of the heavenly bodies, similar to that of 
the ancient Chaldaeans and Babylonians. The holy city of Mecca 
was the centre of the religious life of the entire peninsula. Here 
was the ancient and most revered shrine of the Caaba, where was 
preserved a sacred black stone believed to have been given by an 
angel to Abraham. Hither pilgrimages were made from the most 
remote provinces of Arabia. 

But though the prevailing religion among the tribes of the pen- 
insula was a worship of the celestial bodies under various forms 
and symbols, still there were many followers of other faiths ; for 
Arabia at this time, in happy and reproving contrast to almost 
every other country, was a land of religious freedom. Hence relig- 
ious exiles from every land fled hither as to an asylum, and find- 
ing here a toleration that they sought in vain elsewhere, freely 
expounded their diverse doctrines in all parts of the peninsula. 
The altar of the fire-worshipper arose alongside the Jewish syna- 
gogue and the Christian church. The Jews especially were to be 
found everywhere in great numbers, having been driven from 
Palestine by the Roman persecutions. By the Christian mission- 
aries, the Bible was translated into the Arabic language ; and 
inasmuch as the Old Testament narratives respecting Abraham 
and Ishmael and the other patriarchs harmonized with their own 
traditions, the Arabs received without dissent this portion of the 
Word. 

Such was the religious condition of the tribes of Arabia about 
the beginning of the seventh century of our era, when there ap- 
peared among them a prophet under whose teachings the followers 
of all the idolatrous worships were led to give assent to a single 
and simple creed, and were animated to a pitch of fanatical en- 
thusiasm that drove them forth from their deserts upon a career 
of conquest which could not be stayed until they had overrun the 
fairest portions of the Roman and Persian empires, and given a 
new religion to one sixth of the human race. 

Mohammed. — Mohammed, the great prophet of the Arabs, was 
born in the holy city of Mecca in the year 569. He sprang 



MOHAMMED. 79 

from the distinguished tribe of Koreish, the custodians of the 
sacred shrine of the Caaba. At the age of thirteen he visited, in 
company with his uncle, the bazaars of Damascus and other Syr- 
ian towns, and thus early learned something of the outside world. 
All the first years of his manhood were passed as a shepherd or 
merchant. Having been intrusted with the management of the 
estate of a certain widow named Cadijah, his faithfulness, in con- 
nection with the graces of a person of unusual beauty and the fas- 
cinations of a gifted mind, won her esteem and affection, and she 
became his wife. 

Mohammed possessed a soul that was early and deeply stirred 
by the contemplation of those themes that ever attract the relig- 
ious mind. When the fast of Ramadan approached, — a month 
set apart for humiliation and prayer, — he was wont to withdraw 
from his family and the world, to a cave a few miles from Mecca, 
and there spend long vigils in religious exercises and contempla- 
tion. 

It is in connection with these visits to this solitary chamber that 
we find the mystery of Mohammed's life. He declared that there 
he had visions in which the angel Gabriel appeared to him and 
made to him revelations which he was commanded to make known 
to his fellow-men. The sum of the new faith which he was to 
teach was this : " There is but one God, and Mohammed is his 
Prophet." 

It is probable that Mohammed was subject to such illusions of 
sights and sounds — a not uncommon disorder of the mind — as 
caused Joan of Arc to believe that she was commissioned by 
Heaven to effect the deliverance of her country. Either so, or 
Mohammed was guilty of the grossest deception from the outset 
of his career. 

Mohammed communicated the nature of his visions to his wife, 
who, while not doubting the reality of the visitations, knew not 
whether to attribute them to a good or evil spirit. Finally she 
became convinced that the visits were from a good angel, acknowl- 
edged the divine mission of her husband, and became his first 
convert. 



80 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

For a long time Mohammed now endeavored to gain adherents 
merely by persuasion ; but such was the incredulity with which 
he everywhere met, that at the end of three years his disciples 
numbered only forty persons. But he had gained two staunch 
friends in his relatives Abubekr and Ali, and to these was soon 
added a third, Omar by name, all of whom were destined to 
become illustrious champions of the new faith. 

The Hegira (622). — The teachings of Mohammed at last 
aroused the anger of a powerful party among the Koreishites, who 
feared that they, as the guardians of the national idols of the 
Caaba, would be compromised in the eyes of the other tribes by 
allowing such heresy to be openly taught by one of their number, 
and accordingly plots were formed against his life. He was saved 
from assassination by the devoted Ali, who, wrapping himself in 
his master's mantle, occupied his couch, while Abubekr was con- 
ducting the Prophet, under cover of night, to a place of safety, — 
a cave a short distance from Mecca. 

Tradition tells how the fugitives, while lying concealed in this 
place, were saved by a spider's having spun a web across the 
entrance to the cavern, which led their pursuers to conclude that 
no person could have recently entered the cave. From this hid- 
ing-place Mohammed continued his flight to the city of Medina, 
where he was received with all the reverence due an accredited 
messenger of Heaven. 

This Hegira, or Flight, as the word signifies, occurred in the 
year 622, and was considered by the Moslems as such an impor- 
tant event in the history of their religion that they adopted it as 
the beginning of a new era, and from it still continue to reckon 
their dates. 

The Faith extended by the Sword. — The espousal of his 
cause by the inhabitants of Medina, and the success that now 
began to attend his preaching, seem to have had upon Mohammed 
the effect which success too often has upon ambitious and aspiring 
minds, and to have rilled him with insolent pride. He threw 
aside the character of an exhorter and assumed that of a warrior. 



MOHAMMED'S EMBASSIES. 81 

Persuasion was exchanged for force. He declared that it was the 
will of God that the new faith should be spread by the sword. 

The year following the Hegira he began to attack and plunder 
caravans. The flame of a sacred war was soon kindled. Warriors 
from all quarters flocked to the standard of the Prophet. The 
reckless enthusiasm of his wild converts was intensified by the 
assurance of the Apostle that death met in fighting those who 
resisted the true faith ensured the martyr immediate entrance to 
the joys of Paradise. If at any time they complained of the heat 
of the desert, they were told that " hell was hotter." At the same 
time they were allured by the spoils of successful war, which could 
not fail of appealing powerfully to their plundering instincts. 

The terms offered to all unbelievers were the Koran, tribute, or 
the sword. Within ten years from the time of the assumption of 
the sword by Mohammed, Mecca had been conquered and the 
new creed established among all the tribes of Arabia. The idols 
of the Caaba and of the various shrines between the Persian 
Gulf and the Red Sea had been broken in pieces. The self- 
appointed Prophet had become the spiritual and military head 
of the Arab race, which the intense ardor of religious fanaticism 
had welded into a mighty brotherhood and nation. 

Thus almost in a day the Arab race underwent a complete 
transformation. There is nothing like it in all history, save that 
wonderful inspiration of the Hebrew nation on that eventful 
night spent in the face of their enemy on the shores of the 
Red Sea. Content hitherto with their ancestral domains, and 
exhibiting during a period of three thousand years a perfect 
freedom from the spirit of religious propagandism, the various 
Arabian tribes are now impatient to burst the bounds of their 
deserts and spread their new faith over the world. 

Mohammed's Embassies to Heraclius and Chosroes. — Even 
before Arabia had become entirely obedient to his creed, Mo- 
hammed began to entertain visions of a universal empire. 

Shortly after the Hegira he sent embassies to Heraclius, the 
Eastern Emperor, to Chosroes II. of Persia, and to other princes, 



S2 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

demanding their allegiance to him as the Apostle of the only 
God. Heraclius and the rulers of Egypt and Abyssinia, either 
through policy or fear, gave the embassadors a courteous hear- 
ing ; but Chosroes indignantly tore in pieces the insolent letter 
of the Prophet. When Mohammed heard of the act, he ex- 
claimed, "Thus shall God rend asunder the empire of Chosroes." 

The Persian empire was soon afterwards actually destroyed, and 
the conformity of the event to the prophecy was regarded by the 
disciples of the Apostle as irrefragable evidence of his inspiration. 

The Death of the Prophet. — Mohammed's life was just suffi- 
ciently prolonged to enable him to set the Arabian tribes on their 
marvelous career of foreign conquest. Upon the pretext of an 
insult to one of his embassadors he declared war against Heraclius, 
and wrested from the Empire several cities lying between the 
Dead Sea and the Euphrates. These were the only conquests 
made beyond the limits of the peninsula during the lifetime of 
Mohammed. 

In the year 632 the Prophet, worn out by the labors of his 
apostleship and broken in strength by the infirmities of age, 1 — he 
was now in his sixty- third year, — expired in the arms of his faith- 
ful wife Ayesha, his last words being, " Yes, I come among my 
companions on high." 

The Character of Mohammed. — No character in all history 
has been the subject of more conflicting speculations than that of 
the Arabian Prophet. By some he has been called a self-deluded 
enthusiast, while others have denounced him as the boldest of 
impostors. 

We shall perhaps reconcile these discordant views, if we bear in 
mind that the same person may, in different periods of a long 
career, be both. There seems little doubt that Mohammed was 
the subject of some bodily or mental disorder, as we have already 
intimated, which made him the victim of those illusive appearances 

1 Some charge that Mohammed's health was undermined by poison admin- 
istered by his enemies a considerable time before his death. See Muir, Ma- 
homet and Islam, p. 173. 



THE KORAN. 83 

which he sincerely believed to be real visions. His conduct dur- 
ing all the earlier portion of his career, when, amidst every discour- 
agement of insult, persecution, and ill success, he held unfalteringly 
to his belief in the divine nature of his commission, can be satis- 
factorily explained upon no other view. 

But when the strong advocacy of his cause by the people of 
Medina placed in his hands the means for the punishment of his 
persecutors and the enforcement of his claims by the sword, there 
came to him that temptation which never fails to come to every 
one inflamed with some lofty purpose, when he has unexpectedly 
thrust into his hands instruments for the achievement of his ends, 
the employment of which he knows will insure the success of his 
plans, but the use of which his conscience condemns. There 
comes such a crisis in the life of every man of grand aims and 
lofty ambitions. According as it is met is the character of the 
man determined. Mohammed yielded to the persuasion of the 
moment, resolved to adopt the means circumstances had thrust 
into his hands, and then thought to sanctify the means by the end. 
The inconsistencies of his earlier and later years — of his life as the 
humble and persecuted apostle, and as a fierce, marauding warrior, 
pretending to receive from Heaven fresh revelations for every 
unworthy emergency — are thus reconciled, and we are enabled 
to do justice to the Prophet's undoubted genius and virtues, while 
condemning his weaknesses, his impostures, and his crimes. 

The Koran. — Before going on to trace the conquests of the 
successors of Mohammed, we must form some acquaintance with 
the religion of the great Prophet. 

The doctrines of Mohammedanism or Islam, which means 
'•submission" or "surrender," are contained in the Koran, which 
is believed by the orthodox to have been written from all eternity 
on tablets in heaven. A copy of this, they teach, was given to 
the Prophet by the angel Gabriel. From time to time the 
Apostle recited to his disciples portions of the book, which were 
written down upon fragments of pottery, the broad shoulder 
bones of sheep, and sticks of wood. These scraps of writing, 



84 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

carefully preserved, and added to by tradition, were, after the 
death of the Prophet, religiously collected, and arranged chiefly 
according to length. Such was the origin of the book that has 
been received as sacred by so large a portion of the human race. 

The Doctrines of the Koran. — The subject-matter of the 
Koran is divided by commentators into precepts, histories, and 
admonitions. The precepts refer to prayers, pilgrimages, mar- 
riages, and matters of a like nature ; the historical portions are, 
in the main, copies of the Hebrew Scriptures, with traditions and 
fables from other sources ; the admonitions contain exhortations 
to all to embrace the teachings of Mohammed, and hold out to 
the Faithful the eternal felicities of a heaven filled with every 
sensual delight, with flowers and fruits and bright-eyed houries of 
ravishing beauty, and threaten unbelievers with the torments of 
a hell filled with every horror of flame and demon. 

The main articles of the Mohammedan creed as gathered from 
the Koran are as follows : The, faithful Moslem must believe in 
the absolute unity of God : "There is no God save Allah," is the 
fundamental doctrine of Islamism, and to this is added the equally 
binding declaration that " Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah." 
He must also believe in angels, in the sacredness and infallibility 
of the Koran, and in the supernatural character of the Prophet. 
God has revealed himself through four holy men : to Moses he 
gave the Pentateuch, to David the Psalms, to Jesus the Gospels, 
and to Mohammed, the last and greatest of all the prophets, He 
gave the Koran. He is also required to believe in the resurrec- 
tion and the day of judgment, and an after-state of happiness and 
misery. Also, he must believe in the absoluteness of the decrees 
of God, — that He foreordains whatsoever comes to pass, and that 
nothing that man can do can change His appointments. 

The Koran, while requiring assent to the foregoing creed, in- 
culcates the practice of four virtues. The first is prayer ; five 
times each day must the believer turn his face towards Mecca and 
engage in devotion. The second requirement is almsgiving. 
The third is keeping the Fast of Ramadan, which lasts a whole 



ABUBEKR AND THE CONQUEST OE SYRIA. 85 

month. This requires abstinence from food during the day only. 
At night one may eat as much as he pleases. The fourth duty is 
making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Every person who can possibly 
do so is required to make this journey. 1 

Abubekr, First Successor of Mohammed (632-634). — Upon 
the death of Mohammed a dispute at once arose as to his suc- 
cessor • for the Prophet left no children, nor had he designated 
upon whom his mantle should fall. Abubekr, the Apostle's 
father-in-law, was at last ' chosen to the position, with the title of 
Caliph or Vicar of the Prophet, although many claimed that the 
place belonged to Ali, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, and 
one of his first and most faithful companions. This question of 
succession was destined at a later period, as we shall see, to divide 
the Mohammedan world into two sects, animated by the most 
bitter and lasting hostility towards each other. 

During the first part of his caliphate, Abubekr was engaged in 
suppressing revolts in different parts of the peninsula ; for upon the 
death of Mohammed many of the tribes broke away from the tire- 
some restrictions which the Prophet had put about them, and re- ' 
fused to pay the tribute and alms that he had exacted. Moreover, 
several impostors appeared and set themselves up as prophets. 
Most prominent among these was Moseilama, who succeeded in 
attracting a large and dangerous following. But Khaled, the gen- 
eral of Abubekr, defeated the self-commissioned apostle and slew 
ten thousand of his adherents. With such revengeful swiftness 
and energy did he reduce to subjection the seditious tribes that he 
gained the surname of " the Sword of God." 

With affairs in Arabia, both as regards rebels and rival prophets, 
thus composed, Abubekr was free to carry out the last injunction 
of the Prophet to his followers, which enjoined them to spread his 
doctrines by the sword till all men had confessed the creed of Is- 
lam, or consented to pay tribute to the Faithful. 

The Conquest of Syria. — The country which Abubekr resolved 
first to reduce was Syria. A call addressed to all the Faithful 
1 Ockley's History of the Saracens, p. 70. 



S6 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

throughout Arabia was responded to with the greatest alacrity and 
enthusiasm. From every quarter the warriors flocked to Medina, 
until the desert about the city was literally covered with their black 
tents and crowded with men and horses and camels. x\fter in- 
voking the blessing of God upon the hosts, Abubekr sent them for- 
ward upon their holy mission with these words of admonition : 
" Be just ; the unjust never prosper. . . . When you meet with 
your enemies, acquit yourselves like men, and if you get the vic- 
tory, kill no little children, nor old people, nor women. Destroy 
no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of corn. When you make any 
covenant, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on, 
you will find some religious persons that live retired in monasteries, 
professing to serve God in that way : let them alone. . . . But 
you will also find another sort of people who belong to the syna- 
gogue of Satan, and have shaven crowns ; be sure you cleave their 
skulls and give them no quarter, till they either turn Mohammedan 
or pay tribute." 

The warriors of the Caliph were successful in their first engage- 
ment in Syria, and were enabled to send to Medina a large amount 
of booty as the first-fruits of their crusade. The sight of spoils 
stirred the plundering instincts of the rovers of the desert, and 
soon large reinforcements were flocking from all parts of Arabia 
to the army in Syria. Place after place was captured, until 
Damascus was besieged. Heraclius, who was at Antioch, sent 
100,000 men to the relief of the beleaguered city. These were 
met and scattered by the Saracens, and soon after a second 
Christian army of 70,000 was virtually annihilated. Damascus 
now fell into the hands of the Arabs. 

The same day that saw the capture of Damascus witnessed the 
death of Abubekr (634). In dying he had appointed Omar as 
his successor. When Omar was informed of Abubekr's inten- 
tion, he besought him to change his choice, as he had no need 
of the place. " But the place has need of you," was the reply 
of Abubekr ; and thus Omar became the second of the Vicars 
of the Prophet. 



CONQUEST OF SYRIA. 87 

The change in the caliphate did not interrupt the operations 
of the Syrian army, and in a few months Jerusalem was in the 
hands of the Moslems. We must notice the articles of capitula- 
tion, for the terms imposed upon their conquered enemies by 
the Caliphs were always the same, and having examined them 
in this case, there will be no occasion for our stopping to dwell 
upon the different negotiations that now follow one another in 
rapid succession. 

Omar himself went to Jerusalem to receive the keys of the 
city, and to arrange the terms of the surrender. These were, 
that the Christians should not erect any new churches ; that 
their religious houses should always be opened to Mussulman 
travelers, whom the monks must entertain as guests three days ; 
that the Christians must always stand when in the presence of a 
Moslem ; that they must not wear the same kind of sandals or 
turbans as the believers ; that they must not use saddles ; that 
they must not employ the Arabic language in their inscriptions ; 
that they must not display the Cross ; that they must not ring 
— though they might toll — the bells of their churches. Beside 
these there were various other less important restrictions. 

By observing all the above matters, and paying tribute, the 
Christians were to be free to worship as they pleased. Omar 
gave them the following obligation : " In the name of the most 
merciful God. From Omar to the inhabitants of yElia. 1 They 
shall be protected and secured both in their lives and fortunes, 
and their churches shall neither be pulled down, nor made use 
of by any but themselves." 

The following incident, which occurred during Omar's visit to 
the city, will serve to illustrate how carefully he observed not 
alone the letter, but the spirit of his treaty with the Christians. 
The Moslem hour of prayer arriving when the Caliph, with the 

1 This name dates from the time of the Emperor Hadrian (a.d. 136), who 
in punishment for revolt razed Jerusalem to the ground, and on the spot built 
a new city, to which he gave the name of ^Elia Capitolina, the first word com- 
memorating his own family title (/Elius). 



88 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

patriarch of the city, was in the Church of Constantine, the for- 
mer expressed a desire to be shown a spot where he might kneel. 
The patriarch told him to kneel where he was. But he refused 
to do so, and going out of the building to the east gate, prayed 
upon the steps. Upon the patriarch asking him why he would 
not pray within the church, the Caliph replied, " If I had prayed 
there, the Mohammedans would have taken the church from you, 
in order that they, too, might pray where the Caliph had kneeled." 
The precaution was not unnecessary, for the Moslems actually did 
take possession of the steps, and built a chapel over them. 

After the fall of Jerusalem, the cities of Antioch and Aleppo 
soon yielded to the Saracen arms, and then as to all of Syria the 
command of the Prophet had been fulfilled. During the following 
few years the Arabs subjected Mesopotamia, capturing all the 
strongly fortified cities that had so long defended against the Per- 
sians the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, overran the 
greater part of Asia Minor, and finally pitched their tents on the 
shores of the Black Sea and of the Hellespont. They also, like 
the Romans in the Punic wars, becoming sailors in a day, fitted 
out a large fleet in the Syrian ports, and sacked the cities of the 
Grecian Archipelago. It was at this time that they found, and sold 
for a good price, the prostrate Colossus of Rhodes. 

The Conquest of Persia (632-641). — While Khaled and 
Amrou were effecting the conquest of Syria, another lieutenant 
of the Caliph, Said by name, was busy with the subjugation of 
Persia. Enervated as this country was by luxury, and weakened 
by her long wars with the Eastern Emperors, she could offer but 
feeble resistance to the terrible energy of the Saracens. In a short 
time these cavaliers of the deserts had swept in triumph over 
babylonia, Assyria, and Persia proper. 

Ctesiphon, the capital of the Persian king, situated upon the 
Tigris, was taken and sacked. There the Arabs gazed in astonish- 
ment upon the renowned White Palace of Chosroes, so called on 
account of its brilliant appearance. As they stripped the royal 
residence of its treasures and precious furniture, they called to 



CONQUESTS IN CENTRAL ASIA. 89 

mind what their Prophet had said when it was told him that Chos- 
roes had torn his letter in pieces, — " Even so shall God rend in 
pieces his empire." " This," exclaimed they, " is the fulfilment 
of the prophecy of the Apostle of God." 

Among the articles of furniture in the luxurious palace was 
a silken carpet, upon which was wrought a paradise or garden, 
with foliage, flowers, and fruit depicted by costly gems of various 
hues, corresponding with those of nature. This was sent by Said 
to Omar, who cut the precious fabric into pieces to distribute 
among his chiefs. 

The Persian monarch, the seventh ruler who had held the throne 
during the four years that had elapsed since the defeat by Heraclius 
of the great Chosroes on the field of Nineveh, fled into Tartary, 
and in that remote region was murdered by the Turks. Thus died 
the last of the Sassanian kings of Persia. In a short time the 
authority of the Saracens was established throughout the country. 

Arabian tradition declares that this triumph of Islam over the 
religion of Zoroaster was foreshadowed by a miracle on the night 
that Mohammed was born, when the flames upon all the altars of 
the fire-worshippers, which had been kept burning from age to age, 
were suddenly extinguished. 

Conquests in Central Asia. — Under the Caliph Othman (644- 
655), who succeeded Omar, the Arabs, following the footsteps of 
Alexander, crossed the mountains that wall Persia on the north, * 
and effected the conquest of all the regions watered by the Oxus 
and Jaxartes, and spread their faith among the Turanian tribes of 
Central Asia. 

Among the most formidable of the Tartar clans that adopted the 
new religion were the Turks. Their conversion was an event of 
the greatest significance, for it was their swords that were destined 
to uphold and spread the creed of Mohammed when the fiery zeal 
of his own countrymen should abate, and their arms lose the 
dreaded power which religious fanaticism had for a moment im- 
parted to them. 

The Conquest of Egypt (638). — The reduction of Syria had 



90 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

already been accomplished and the fate of the Persian kingdom 
foreshadowed by the fatal battle of Cadesia (636) , when Omar, in the 
fourth year of his Caliphate, commissioned Amrou, the chief whose 
valor had won many of the cities of Palestine, to carry the standard 
of the Prophet into the valley of the Nile. 

Egypt was, at this time, one of the most populous and highly 
civilized of the countries under the rule of the Eastern Emperors. 
Since its conquest by the Romans (30 B.C.), it had remained in 
the hands of the Caesars of Rome or Constantinople, and from its 
inexhaustible granaries were loaded the vast fleets of grain-ships 
that supplied the markets of those imperial cities. It was now 
defended by the garrisons of the Emperor Heraclius, and was 
further protected by the ancient renown of the Pharaohs and 
Ptolemies, visions of whose glory and power still filled the imagina- 
tion of the East. Omar himself, even after the army of the Faithful 
was upon its march, began to fear lest zeal had passed into pre- 
sumption in making an attack upon so powerful a state, and dis- 
patched messengers after Amrou, bidding him, if not already across 
the frontiers of Egypt, to turn back ; but if within the country, to 
" trust God and his sword." The intrepid Amrou, mistrusting the 
contents of the letter, — which had reached him while he was yet 
in Syria, — marched on until across the Egyptian frontier, then 
opened and read it to his soldiers. All declared with one voice 
• that Providence had determined that they were to plant the 
standard of the Apostle upon the citadels of Egypt. 

Pelusium, the ancient stronghold which from the times of the 
Pharaohs had defended the eastern frontiers of the country, was 
captured after a short siege, and all Egypt then lay open to the 
march of the Saracens. Fortunately for their bold undertaking 
the Coptic Christians, the descendants of the ancient Egyptians, 
constituting probably nine tenths of the population, had been 
alienated from the court of Constantinople by the persecutions 
they had endured on account of their departure from the orthodox 
creed of the Church, they being sectaries of what was termed the 
Jacobite heresy. They therefore hailed as deliverers the Arabs, 



THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT. 91 

who promised to permit them to retain their religion upon the 
payment of tribute. This they were quite willing to do, as the 
amount they would be required to transmit to the Vicar of 
the Prophet could not in any event be larger than the exactions 
wrung from them by the officers of the Eastern Emperor. So the 
entire Coptic population turned in a body against their Greek 
oppressors, and "had not the Nile," declares Gibbon, "afforded 
a safe and ready conveyance to the sea, not an individual could 
have escaped, who by birth, or language, or office, or religion, was 
connected with the odious name." 

The lieutenants of Heraclius gathered their forces within the 
walls of Alexandria, and made an obstinate defense of that capital, 
which next after Constantinople ranked as the most important city 
of the Empire. But after holding out against the arms of the 
Saracens for more than a year, the garrison loaded their ships with 
such treasures as could be carried away, and abandoned the city to 
the enemy. 

Amrou, in communicating the intelligence of the important 
event to Omar, wrote : " I have taken the great city of the West. 
It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and 
beauty; and I shall content myself with observing that it contains 
four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four hundred theaters 
or places of amusement, twelve thousand shops for the sale of 
vegetable food, and forty thousand tributary Jews." 

The conqueror further wrote the Caliph about the famous 
Alexandrian Library, and asked what he should do with the books. 
Omar is said to have replied, " If these books agree with the 
Koran, they are useless ; if they disagree, they are pernicious : in 
either case they ought to be destroyed." Accordingly the books 
were distributed among the four thousand baths of the capital, and 
served to feed their fires for six months. 1 

1 This entire story is regarded by many critics as improbable and apocryphal. 
Gibbon not only doubts the fact of the destruction of the books, but refuses 
to lament their loss if destroyed. It is probable that the collection was partly 
burned during the troubles attending Julius Caesar's invasion of Egypt; and 



92 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

The loss of Alexandria was regarded at Constantinople as an 
event almost as calamitous as would have been the capture of that 
capital itself. The Emperor Heraclius was so affected by the 
intelligence that he survived the disaster only a few days. But 
there was still sufficient spirit in the successors to the throne of 
Constantinople to put forth repeated efforts for the recovery of 
the lost capital. Three times did the forces of the Empire obtain 
possession of the prize, and as often were they expelled by the 
Saracens, who at last destroyed the fortifications of the place, to 
prevent another occupation by the Romans. 

The Caliphs Othman and Ali. — Omar fell by the hand of an 
assassin in the ninth year of his caliphate, and Othman (644-655) 
was chosen as his successor. He at once set himself to the pious 
work of carrying still further from Mecca the standard of the 
Apostle of God. But dissensions and jealousies were already 
arising among the followers of the Prophet, and the vigor and 
unity of effort that had characterized the caliphates of Abubekr 
and Omar and given irresistible might to the Moslem arms, were 
no longer to be found in the councils of Mecca. Othman soon 
had a strong party arrayed against him, and finally he was assassi- 
nated in his own house, in the eighty-second year of his age and 
the twelfth of his reign. Ali (655-661), the son-in-law of 
Mohammed, — he had married Fatima, the daughter of the 
Prophet, — was, after some delay, chosen or rather declared 
Caliph. 

The following story at once reveals and explains the condition 
of affairs at this time at the center of the Moslem world. One 
day an officer of Ali's court impudently asked him why the reign 

that more of the books were destroyed by the early Christians themselves, as 
being the " monuments of idolatry." The famous dilemma about the useless- 
ness or perniciousness of the books, is one of those sayings that have been 
accorded a various parentage. The sentiment, mutatis mutandis, has been 
attributed among others to Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria, who lived about 
the close of the fourth century, and who displayed a fanatical hostility to every- 
thing classical. 



THE DYNASTY OF THE OMMIADES. 93 

of Othman and his own were so full of trouble and contention, 
while those of Abubekr and Omar were so peaceful. AH replied : 
" Because Othman and I served Abubekr and Omar during their 
reigns, and Othman and I found nobody to serve us but you, or 
such as are like you." 

The Establishment of the Dynasty of the Ommiades (66 1). — 
The quarrel of the several parties at last broke out in civil war. 
All was scarcely placed in the caliphate before he was forced to 
send an army against a pretender, Moawiyah by name, who had 
set up a rival court at Damascus, and whose claims were sup- 
ported by the able and ambitious Amrou, the conqueror of Egypt. 
Three men, with a view to removing the causes of discord, 
planned the assassination of Ali, Moawiyah, and Amrou. The last 
two escaped the fate intended for them, but Ali fell a victim to 
the conspiracy (661). "With him," says Osborn, "perished the 
truest-hearted and best Moslem of whom Mohammedan history 
has preserved remembrance." Ali was the last of the four so- 
called " Orthodox Caliphs," all of whom were near relatives or 
companions of the Prophet. 

Moawiyah was now recognized as Caliph. He succeeded in 
making the office hereditary instead of elective as it hitherto had 
been, and thus established what is known as the dynasty of the 
Ommiades, 1 the rulers of which family for nearly a century issued 
their commands from the city of Damascus. 

In securing his power Moawiyah had caused the murder of the 
two sons of Ali, Hassan and Hosain. These youths were ever 
regarded as martyrs by the friends of the house of Ali, and their 
untimely and cruel fate served to render perpetual the feuds whose 
beginning we have seen. Notwithstanding all the mutations of 
sovereignties and race in the Mohammedan world, these early 
dissensions have been kept alive, and still divide the disciples of 
the Prophet into two factions that cherish the most implacable 
hatred towards each other. 2 

1 So called from Ommaya, an ancestor of Moawiyah. 

2 The Mohammedans of Persia, who are known as Shiites, are the leaders 



94 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

The Conquest of Northern Africa (643-689). — But notwith- 
standing these feuds and divisions, during the reign of Othman, 
Ali, and their immediate successors, Northern Africa was sub- 
jugated from Egypt to the Straits of Gibraltar. The lieutenants 
of the Caliphs, however, were obliged to do much and fierce 
fighting before they obtained possession of these oft-disputed 
shores. They had to contend not only with the Graeco-Roman 
Christians of the coast, but to battle with the idolatrous Moors of 
the interior. Furthermore, all Europe had begun to feel alarm at 
the threatening progress of the Saracens, and to view with appre- 
hension their rapid advance towards the Atlantic, where only a 
narrow channel of water would separate their victorious hosts 
from the territory of Europe ; so now Roman soldiers from Con- 
stantinople and Gothic warriors from Italy and Spain hastened 
across the Mediterranean to aid in the protection of Carthage, and 
to help arrest the alarming progress of these wild fanatics of the 
desert. 

But all was of no avail. Destiny had given to the followers of 
the Apostle the land of Hannibal and Augustine. Akbar, Hassan, 
and other valiant chiefs of the Moslems turned repeated defeat 
into ultimate victory. The long and desperate struggle was illus- 
trated, as were all the campaigns of the Arabs, by surprising ex- 
ploits of valor and splendid examples of religious zeal. Even 
before Carthage had been taken, Akbar, regardless of the fact that 
he was leaving an army of enemies in his rear, led his followers 
along the shore to the westernmost limits of the continent, and 
then, urging his horse into the waters of the Atlantic, cried, 
" Great God ! if my course were not stopped by this sea, I would 

of the party of Ali, while the Turks, known as Sunnites, are the chief adhe- 
rents of the opposite party. This schism among the followers of the Prophet 
is believed by Mussulmans to have been prefigured in the fable which tells of 
Mohammed's cutting the moon in two parts, and, after hiding one portion in 
his sleeve, again uniting the two halves. From all this they argue that the 
schism will by and by be healed, and that the entire Mohammedan world will 
be reunited, with the discords of the past all forgotten. — Introduction to 
Ockley's His/ory of the Saracens. 



ATTACKS UPON CONSTANTINOPLE. 95 

still go on to the unknown kingdoms of the West, preaching the 
unity of thy holy name, and putting to the sword the rebellious 
nations who worship any other gods than thee." (689.) 

It was not until nine years after this that Carthage finally fell 
into the hands of the Arabs. Its Roman and Gothic defenders 
were driven to their ships, the city was burnt, and every vestige of 
the capital as carefully erased as it had been by the unrelenting 
Romans a thousand years before. Nothing save a few hovels has 
since marked the spot. 

The half- Romanized provincials of the coast. — such as the 
ravages of the wars of Heraclius and the swords of the Moslems 
had spared, — the Moors of the interior, and the Saracens, grad- 
ually melted into a single race confessing the creed and speaking 
the language of the conquerors ; and to-day it would be impossible 
to distinguish the swarthy Arab Moor of Northern Africa from the 
tawny Bedouin of Syria or Arabia. 

By this conquest all the countries of Northern Africa, whose 
history for a thousand years, from Dido to Augustine, had been 
intertwined with that of the opposite shores of Europe, and which 
at one time seemed destined to share the career of freedom and 
progress opening to the people of that continent, were drawn back 
into the fatalism, the despotism, and the stagnation of the East ; 
so that henceforth we shall have occasion to notice their affairs 
only incidentally, and then only as the barbarous and piratical 
tribes of the degenerate coast shall need to be chastized by the 
Christian sovereigns of Europe, or by the rulers of a people from 
a then unknown world lying beyond the sea invaded by the chief- 
tain Akbar. 

Attacks upon Constantinople. — Within fifty years from the 
death of Mohammed his standard had been carried by the lieu- 
tenants of his successors through Asia to the Hellespont, on the 
one side, and across Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar, on the 
other. From each of these two points, so remote from each other, 
the fanatic warriors of the desert were casting longing glances 
across those narrow passages of water, which alone separated them 



96 FIRS T PERIOD. - - 7 'HE DA R K A GES. 

from the single continent that their swift coursers had not yet 
traversed, or whence the spoils of the unbelievers had not yet 
been borne to the feet of the Vicar of the Prophet of God. We 
may expect to see the Saracens at one or both of these points 
attempt the invasion of Europe. 

The first attempt was made in the East, where the Arabs en- 
deavored to gain control of the Bosphorus, by wresting Constanti- 
nople from the hands of the Eastern Emperors. After the 
conquest of Syria the Saracens, as we have noticed, fitted out 
in the Syrian ports large naval armaments, and so were able to 
carry on their operations against the Empire by both sea and land. 
In the year 668, only thirty-six years after the death of Moham- 
med, an immense host of Moslems laid siege to Constantinople. 
The fate of Christian Europe seemed to hang upon the issue of 
the event, for should the Arabs force the gates of the city, there 
was then nothing to prevent their advance into the very heart of 
the continent. 

For six years the Mohammedans pressed the siege with reck- 
less daring and unflagging energy, while the inhabitants of the 
beleagured city repelled every attack with equal valor and spirit. 
The final repulse of the assailants and the salvation of the capital 
was due to the use by the besieged of a certain bituminous com- 
pound, called Greek Fire, which upon striking any object instantly 
ignited with a terrific explosion, and burnt with a fierce and un- 
controllable flame. This pitchy substance was poured from the 
walls upon scaling parties, or was cast to a distance by tipped 
arrows, or was blown through tubes. The Arabs, whose impetu- 
osity nothing yet had been able to check, retreated in dismay 
before this terrible liquid fire, and Constantinople was saved. 

In 716 the city was again besieged by a powerful Moslem army ; 
but its heroic defense by the Emperor Leo III. saved the capital, 
for several centuries longer, to the Christian world. 

The Conquest of Spain. — While the Moslems were thus being 
repulsed from Europe at its eastern extremity, the gates of the 
continent were being opened to them by treachery at the western 






THE CONQUEST OF SPAIN. 97 

Count Julian, one of the nobles of Roderic, the last Visigothic king 
of Spain, was the Judas who, tradition says, in revenge for some 
real or fancied wrong, betrayed his country into the hands of the 
Mohammedans. This chief had been entrusted by Roderic with 
the command of the important fortress of Ceuta, which guarded 
the Straits of Gibraltar, and which was the only stronghold upon 
the African shore that had not been wrested from the Christians. 
Julian sent private messengers to Musa, the Mohammedan gover- 
nor of Africa, offering to surrender his post to him, and lend him 
aid in an invasion of the dominions of Roderic. 

Musa at once availed himself of the offer, and having obtained 
permission of the Caliph to annex Spain to the dominions of the 
Faithful, sent a small force across the channel to spy out the land. 
The report which they brought back of the riches of the country 
and the weakness of its defenders being favorable, the following 
spring (711) Musa sent his lieutenant Tarik with a strong force 
of Moors and Arabs to effect the conquest of the peninsula. 

Tarik landed at the point which to this day in its name Gibral- 
tar {Gibel-al- Tarik, " Mount of Tarik ") retains the name of the 
famous chief. Roderic gathered his forces from all parts of Spain, 
and hastened to meet the invaders, whom he encountered upon 
the field of Xeres, on the banks of the Guadalete. But the 
soldiers who now marched beneath the standard of the Visigothic 
king were not the same warriors that had followed Alaric to the 
spoil of the Roman Empire. During the two centuries and more 
that the Gothic conquerors had been in Spain, they had become 
thoroughly assimilated to the Latin-speaking provincials of the 
peninsula, had assumed their manners and language, and had even 
appropriated their name, priding themselves upon the title of 
Romans. This change had been accompanied by an inevitable 
decay of barbarian virtue and valor. A single glimpse at the 
Gothic army as it goes out to meet the Moslem host, reveals at 
once the degeneracy that has overtaken the descendants of Alaric 
and Euric, and foreshadows the issue of the impending battle. 
We see Roderic, appareled in silken robes and crowned with a 



98 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

jeweled diadem, reclining luxuriously in an ivory car, drawn by 
white mules. 

There was disaffection, too, among the chiefs of Roderic ; for his 
reign had been marked by many acts of tyranny and injustice. 
So from these causes, what should have been an easy victory over 
the intruders was prolonged into a seven days' battle, which at 
last resulted in the disgraceful abandonment of the standard of 
Roderic by a portion of his army, who went over to the enemy, 
and the only less disgraceful flight of the remainder. Roderic 
himself fled from the field, and was drowned while crossing the, 
Guadalquivir. Such was the fate of the last of the Gothic kings. 

The battle of Xeres decided the fate of Spain. Cordova, 
Toledo, and all the principal cities now quickly submitted to the 
authority of the invaders. What the Roman legions had with 
difficulty effected only after two hundred years' desperate fighting, 
the lieutenants of the Caliphs accomplished in the space of a few 
months. By this conquest some of the fairest provinces of Spain 
were lost to Christendom for a period of eight hundred years. 

No sooner had the conquest of the country been effected than 
multitudes of colonists from Arabia, Syria, and North Africa 
crowded into the peninsula, until in a short time the provinces of 
Seville, Cordova, Toledo, and Granada became Arabic in dress, 
manners, language, and religion. 

Invasion of France: Battle of Tours (732). — After having 
followed the Saracens in their wonderful career of victory during 
the first century succeeding the death of the Prophet, we naturally 
are led to ask what limits they propose to their conquests. Our in- 
quiry will be answered if we bear in mind that the last command 
laid upon the Faithful by the dying x\postle was to carry the Koran 
to every people under the heavens. Every battle his followers 
fought, every conquest that they made, was in fulfilment of the 
sacred commission. The Crescent that they bore was the emblem of 
a universal empire, which they were to establish over all unbelievers 
and idolaters. And these Arabian warriors went forth from their 
deserts with absolute faith that the world had been given to them. 



INVASION OF FRANCE. 99 

And certainly the marvelous success that had everywhere attended 
their arms justified at once their faith in the inspiration of their 
Prophet and the divine nature of their commission, while approv- 
ing as most reasonable the wildest visions of fanaticism. In a 
period of time embracing only a little more than two generations, 
the consecrated ensigns of Islam had been carried from Mecca 
eastward to the shadows of the Himalayas, and westward to the 
denies of the Pyrenees. Even the passes of the Pyrenees had 
already been forced (Abderrahman crossed the mountains in 718), 
and the Saracens were now establishing themselves upon the plains 
of Gaul. 

The advance of the Moslem hosts beyond the northern wall of 
Spain was viewed with the greatest alarm by all Christian Europe. 
The plans of the Saracens were now manifest. The dream of 
Mithridates and of Caesar was to be realized in the actual achieve- 
ments of the lieutenants of the Caliphs. Abderrahman, the Sara- 
cen chief now upon the soil of Gaul, was to subjugate the Franks 
and their confederates, cross the Rhine and crush the tribes be- 
yond that stream, and then follow down the course of the Danube 
to its mouth. Upon the shores of the Hellespont the bands of 
the Faithful were to join hands and together give thanks to Allah 
for the conquest of the World. 

Even to the most disinterested watcher of events, it might ap- 
pear as though these gigantic plans were about to be accomplished. 
As Draper pictures it, the Crescent, lying in a vast semi-circle 
upon the northern shore of Africa and the curving coast of Asia, 
with one horn touching the Bosphorus and the other the Straits of 
Gibraltar, seemed about to round to the full and overspread all 
Europe. 

In the year 732, exactly one hundred years after the death of 
the great Prophet, the Franks and their allies met the Moslems 
upon the plains of Tours in the centre of Gaul, and committed to 
the issue of a single battle the fate of Christendom and the future 
course of history. Abderrahman was the leader of the Moham- 
medan hosts, which, variously estimated from 80,000 to 500,000 



100 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

men, had been gathered from all the countries of Asia and Africa 
that yielded obedience to the Vicars of the Prophet. Charles, 
Duke of the Austrasian Franks, who as Mayor of the Palace under 
a feeble Merovingian King was regarded as the real head of the 
Frankish nation, was the chief of the Teutonic warriors, who had 
been collected from all parts of Gaul and even called from beyond 
the Rhine. 

For six days the opposing hosts engaged in indecisive combats, 
and not until the seventh day did they join in the final and terrific 
encounter which was to decide whether Europe should be Chris- 
tian or Mohammedan, Aryan or Semitic. The desperate valor 
displayed by the warriors of both armies was worthy of the prize 
at stake. Abderrahman fell in the thick of the fight, and night 
saw the complete discomfiture of the Moslem hordes. The loss 
that the sturdy blows of the Germans had inflicted upon them was 
enormous, the accounts of that age swelling the number killed to 
the impossible figures of 375,000. The disaster at all events was too 
overwhelming to permit the Saracens ever to recover from the blow. 
They retained, however, their hold upon Septimania for about 
twenty years, when they were finally driven beyond the Pyrenees. 

The young civilization of Europe was thus delivered from an 
appalling danger, such as had not threatened it since the fearful 
days of Attila and the Huns. The heroic Prince Charles who had 
led the warriors of Christendom to the glorious victory was given 
the surname Martel, the " Hammer," in commemoration of the 
mighty blows of his huge battle-ax. 

Beginning of the Dynasty of the Abbassides (750). — Only 
eighteen years after the battle of Tours, an important event 
marked the internal history of the caliphate. This was the over- 
throw of the house of the Ommiades and the establishment of that 
of the Abbassides. 

We have already seen how the setting up of the Ommiade 
throne was accompanied by the proscription and murder of the 
sons of Ali, the rights of whose family were maintained by a large 
party among the Moslems. The adherents of this house were 






THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE CALIPHATE. 101 

especially numerous in Persia, and it was that country which 
finally became the centre of a revolt against the Ommiades. The 
revolutionists proclaimed as Caliph Abdallah, a descendant of 
Abbas, uncle of Mohammed. The movement was successful ; the 
Ommiades were proscribed and massacred, and Abdallah became 
the founder of the celebrated house of the Abbassides, so called 
from the new caliph's progenitor. 

Refusing to reign in the city of Damascus because of its pollu- 
tion by the Ommiade usurpers, the new family soon after coming 
to power established the seat of the royal residence on the lower 
Tigris, and upon the banks of that river founded the renowned 
city of Bagdad (762), which was destined to remain the abode of 
the Abbasside Caliphs for a period of five hundred years, — until 
the subversion of the house by the Tartars of the North. 

The Golden Age of the Caliphate. — By the time that the 
foundations of Bagdad were laid, the successors of Mohammed 
had quite forgotten the rude simplicity that characterized the 
court of Medina, and had become as luxurious in habits and 
tastes as the effeminate Greeks and Persians whom they had sub- 
jugated. Hence the new capital rose splendid as an oriental 
dream. Gorgeous palaces, splendid mosques, and stately public 
buildings of every kind told of the influence upon the Arabs of 
the arts of the conquered peoples. 

The golden age of the caliphate of Bagdad covers the latter 
part of the eighth and the ninth century of our era, and was illus- 
trated by the reigns of such princes as Almansor (754-775) and 
the renowned Haroun-al-Raschid (786-809). During this period 
science and philosophy and literature were most assiduously culti- 
vated by the Arabian scholars, and the court of the Caliphs pre- 
sented in culture and luxury a striking contrast to the rude 
and barbarous courts of the kings and princes of Western 
Christendom. 

The Dismemberment of the Caliphate. — " At the close of the 
first century of the Hegira," writes Gibbon, "the Caliphs were the 
most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe. The word that 



102 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

went forth from the palace at Damascus was obeyed on the Indus, 
on the Jaxartes, and on the Tagus." Scarcely less potent was the 
word that at first went forth from Bagdad. But in a short time 
the extended empire of the Abbassides, through the quarrels of 
sectaries and the ambitions of rival aspirants for the honors of the 
caliphate, was broken in fragments, and the authority of the rulers 
of Bagdad finally reduced to the merest shadow. 

In the proscription and slaughter of the unfortunate family of 
the Ommiades two or three members of the house had escaped. 
One of these, a youth by the name of Abdelrahman, fled to 
Egypt, and thence made his way along the African coast to Spain, 
where he was received with acclamations by the Moslems, who 
declared themselves independent of the Abbassides, and pro- 
claimed the fugitive Emir 1 of Cordova (755). Thus was the 
Mohammedan world rent in twain. 

Besides the parties of the Ommiades and the Abbassides a third 
afterwards arose, which, however, never acquired the renown of 
either of the other two, nor perpetuated itself so long. These 
sectaries were the Fatimedes or Fatimites. They took their name 
from Fatima (the daughter of Mohammed and wife of Ali), whose 
descendants were held by them to be the rightful successors to 
the authority of the Apostle. Having obtained a foothold in 
Northern Africa, they gradually extended their authority, until in 
the year 970 they wrested Egypt from the hands of the Abbassides 
of Bagdad, and founded Cairo, upon the Nile, as their capital. 
Palestine and a large part of Syria were afterwards added to their 
dominions. 

So now the empire of the Saracens was divided into three parts, 
and from three capitals — from Bagdad upon the Tigris, from 
Cairo upon the Nile, and from Cordova upon the Guadalquivir — 
were issued the commands of three rival Caliphs, each of whom 
was regarded by his adherents as the sole rightful, spiritual, and 
civil successor of the Apostle. All, however, held the great 

1 The title of Caliph was not assumed by the Moslem rulers of Spain until 
the time of Abdelrahman III. (912-961). 



SPREAD OF THE RELIGION OF THE ARABS. 103 

Arabian Prophet in the same reverence, all maintained with equal 
zeal the sacred character of the Koran, and all prayed with their 
faces turned toward the holy city of Mecca. 

Spread of the Religion and Language of the Arabs. — Just 
as the Romans Romanized the peoples they conquered, so did the 
Saracens Saracenize the populations of the countries subjected to 
their authority. Over a large part of Spain, over North Africa, 
Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Persia, Northern India, and 
portions of Central Asia, were spread — to the more or less perfect 
exclusion of native customs, speech, and worship — the manners, 
the language, and the religion of the Arabian conquerors. 

In Arabia no religion was tolerated save the faith of the Koran. 
But in all the countries beyond the limits of the peninsula, freedom 
of worship was allowed (save to idolaters, who were to be " rooted 
out"), yet unbelievers must purchase this liberty by the payment 
of a moderate tribute. Thus throughout all the conquered coun- 
tries, Christians, Jews, and Fire-worshippers were alike granted the 
privilege of retaining the faith of their fathers. In some cases 
a part of the churches of the Christians were taken away from 
them, as the legitimate spoils of conquest, and converted into 
mosques. 

But notwithstanding the toleration granted these several faiths, 
the Christian and Zoroastrian religions — but not the Jewish — 
gradually died out almost everywhere throughout the domains of 
the Caliphs. The African Church, which had given birth to a 
Cyprian and an Augustine, and which for centuries preceding the 
Saracen conquest had been most powerful in wealth, learning, and 
confessors, gradually fell away, until by the beginning of the 13th 
century there probably was not a single church upon the shores of 
Northern Africa. The creed of Mohammed was confessed by 
almost every soul dwelling between the Atlantic and the Nile. 

The same story may be told of the provinces of Cordova, Seville, 
Valencia, and Granada in Spain. In Syria and Mesopotamia the 
Nestorian and Jacobite churches maintained a feeble foothold. 
In Persia the fires of the fire-worshippers, after languishing for 



104 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK A GES. 

several centuries, finally expired, save at Yezd, where a few fol- 
lowers of the old worship still fed the sacred flames, and Islam 
became the prevalent creed throughout the ancient home of the 
faith of Zoroaster. 1 In Northern India Mohammedanism obtained 
a strong foothold, which it has retained to the present day, but it 
never became there the dominant religion ; while among the Tartar 
tribes about the Oxus and Jaxartes the creed of the Apostle was 
embraced to the virtual exclusion of all ancient forms of idolatry. 

And by the Saracen conquests the language of Arabia was spread 
only less widely than its new faith. Over all the conquered coun- 
tries west of the mountains that separate Persia from the Tigro- 
Euphrates valley, that is to say, over ancient Assyria, Babylonia, 
Syria, Egypt, and Northern Africa, it became the predominant 
speech, and has remained such up to the present time. So com- 
pletely were all the inhabitants of these extended regions assimi- 
lated to the conquerors, that the traveller to-day in passing from 
Tangier in Africa to Bagdad in Babylonia meets everywhere — in 
Morocco, in Tunis, in Egypt, in Syria, in Mesopotamia — people 
that in face, speech, and customs betray their Arabian origin. 

Beyond the eastern edge of Mesopotamia, however, the Arabs 
failed to impress their language upon the subjected peoples, or in 
any way, save in the matter of creed, to leave upon them any 
important permanent trace of their conquests. 

The Defects of Islam. — The first-fruits of Islam might well 
have led one to regard it as a faith favorable to civilization. Thus 
under the early Abbassides Bagdad became, as we have seen, a re- 
nowned centre of light and culture and refinement, while Cor- 

1 The number of Guebers or fire-worshippers in Persia at the present time 
is about 100,000, found for the most part at Yezd and in the province of Ker- 
man. A larger number may be counted in India, the descendants of the 
Guebers who fled from Persia at the time of the Arabian invasion. They are 
there called Parsees, from the land whence they came. After the English, 
they are the most enterprising, intelligent, and influential class in India to-day. 
They are more like their European kinsmen than any other of the Asiatic 
Aryans. 



THE DEFECTS OF ISLAM. 105 

dova under Moslem rule was one of the bright spots of mediaeval 
Europe. Civilization certainly owes a large debt to the Saracens. 
They preserved and transmitted much that was valuable in the 
science of the Greeks and the Persians. They improved trigo- 
nometry and algebra, and from India they borrowed the decimal 
system of notation and introduced it into the West. 1 

" But it would be a grievous error," says Osborn, " to con- 
found that gleam of culture which illuminated Bagdad under the 
first Abbasside Caliphs with the legitimate fruits of Islam." The 
real relation of Mohammedanism to this civilization is aptly illus- 
trated by the writer just quoted, when he likens it to dark clouds 
which gather about the setting sun and are lighted up by it with a 
splendor not their own. " The glories of Bagdad," he says, 
" were but the afterglow of the thought and culture which sank 
with the fall of the Sassanides, and the expulsion of the Byzantine 
emperors." So too, the blossom and fruitage of the Moorish 
civilization in Spain he would attribute to Jewish and Christian 
influence. 

Many of the tenets of Islam are certainly most unfavorable to 
human liberty, progress, and improvement. It teaches fatalism, 
and thus paralyzes the will of man and discourages effort and enter- 
prise. It removes God to an inconceivable distance from human- 
ity, denies all possibility of communion and sympathy between the 
human soul and the Infinite Spirit, and thus represses all spiritual 
aspiration and growth. It consecrates sensuality, and thus sinks 
its devotees into the lowest degradation. It allows polygamy and 
puts no restraint upon divorce, and thus destroys the sanctity of 

1 What Europe received in science from Arabian sources is kept in remem- 
brance by such words as alchemy, alcohol, alembic, algebra, alkali, almanac, 
azimuth, chemistry, elixir, zenith, and nadir. To how great an extent the 
chief Arabian cities became the manufacturing centres of the mediaeval world 
is indicated by the names which these places have given to various textile 
fabrics and other articles. Thus muslin comes from Mosul, on the Tigris, 
damask from Damascus, and gauze from Gaza. Damascus and Toledo blades 
tell of the proficiency of the Arab workmen in metallurgy. 



106 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

the family life. It shuts up woman in the harem, and thus deprives 
all classes of the elevating and refining influences of social inter- 
course. It permits slavery, and is the foster parent of despotism. 
It inspires a blind and bigoted hatred of race and creed, and thus 
puts far out of sight the salutary truth of the brotherhood of 
men. It gives a " dead revelation " to man, a revelation in 
which there is no vitality, no power of expansion, no capacity 
to adapt itself to new human wants, and which thus bars every 
avenue of social or individual progress and improvement. Because 
of these and other only less prominent defects in its teachings, 
Islam has proved a blight and curse to every race embracing its 
sterile doctrines. 



THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 107 



CHAPTER VI. 

CHARLEMAGNE AND THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE 
IN THE WEST. 

General Remarks. — In the foregoing chapter we traced the 
rise and decline of the power of the Saracens. We saw the 
Semitic East roused for a moment to a life of tremendous energy 
by the miracle of religious enthusiasm, and then beheld it sinking 
rapidly again into inaction and weakness, disappointing all its 
early promises. Manifestly the Law is not to go forth from Mecca. 
The Semitic race is not to lead the civilization of the world. 

But returning again to the West, we discover among the 
Teutonic barbarians indications of such youthful energy and life, 
that we are at once persuaded that to them has been given the fu- 
ture and the world. The Franks, who, with the aid of their con- 
federates, withstood the advance of the Saracens upon the field of 
Tours, and saved Europe from subjection to the Koran, are the 
people that first attract our attention. Among them it is that a 
man appears who makes the first grand attempt to restore the 
laws, the order, the institutions of the ancient Romans. Charle- 
magne, their king, is the imposing figure that moves amidst all the 
events of the times ; indeed, is the one who makes the events, 
and renders the period in which he lived an epoch in universal 
history. 

The story of this era affords the key to very much of the sub- 
sequent history of Western Europe. The mere enumeration of the 
events which are to claim our attention will illustrate the important 
and germinal character of the period. We shall tell how the 
Mayors of the Palace of the Merovingian princes became the 
actual kings of the Franks, and how in this matter the Bishops of 
Rome established a precedent of far-reaching influence for depos- 



108 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

ing and setting up kings ; how, through the liberality of the 
Frankish kings, the Popes laid the foundations of their temporal 
sovereignty ; how Charlemagne restored the Roman Empire in 
the West, and throughout its extended limits laid the basis of 
modern civilization. 

How Duke Pepin became King of the Franks. — Charles 
Martel, whose tremendous blows at Tours earned for him his 
significant surname, although the most prominent figure amidst 
the stirring events of his times, was, as we have learned, nominally 
only an officer of the Frankish court, and, with the title of Duke 
or Mayor, administered the government in the name of a weak 
Merovingian sovereign. It would have been easy, we should sup- 
pose, for the powerful Duke to depose his imbecile master and 
place himself upon the throne. But, either because Charles Mar- 
tel's loyalty was equal to his valor, or because of the reverence 
in which the Franks held the person of their kings, the Duke 
remained faithful to his sovereign to the end of his life, and died 
without ever having borne the title of king, notwithstanding he 
had exercised all the authority of that office. 

But Charles's son Pepin, called le Bre/on account of his dimin- 
utive stature, aspired to the royal title and honors. The manner in 
which he set about to secure the prize illustrates at once the rever- 
ence in which the kingly name was held, and the influence of the 
Church in these barbarous times. In concurrence with the nobles 
of the realm, Pepin sent embassadors to Pope Zacharias at Rome 
to represent that it was the wish of the Franks that the Merovin- 
gian king should be deposed, and that the Duke, whose own 
deeds together with those of his illustrious father had done so 
much for the Frankish nation and for Christendom, and who 
wielded all the power of royalty, should be invested with the 
symbols and titles of the kingly office. 

Zacharias, mindful of recent favors which he had received at 
the hands of Pepin, assured the commissioners that he would 
arrange the matter so that what they desired might be done with- 
out any one incurring the guilt of perjury. By an exercise of his 



THE LANDS OF THE LOMBARDS. 109 

plenary powers he then absolved the subjects of Chilperic. — such 
was the name of the Merovingian king — from their oaths of 
fealty to him, and ordered that his long beard and hair should be 
cut off, and that he should be placed in a monastery. This was 
done, and within the walls of the cloister the last of the long- 
haired kings of the Franks is lost to history. Pepin was anointed 
and crowned King of the Franks (752), and thus became the first 
of the Carolingian line — the name of his illustrious son Charle- 
magne giving name to the house. 

In the deposition of the Merovingian king and the exalting of 
the Duke of Austrasia to the royal dignity, Pope Zacharias exer- 
cised a power never before assumed by the successors of St. Peter, 
and established a precedent which subsequent Bishops of Rome 
quoted with effect when endeavoring to establish their claim to 
the right of setting up and deposing at will the temporal rulers of 
the earth. 

Pepin confers upon the Pope the Lands of the Lombards. — 
Pepin had inherited the talent and valor of his father, and during 
his vigorous reign (752-768) extended his authority throughout 
all the provinces of Gaul, and often passed beyond the limits of 
the country upon various military enterprises, always cloaking his 
ambition under the pretence of a desire to advance the interests 
of the Church. His campaigns and conquests in Italy were 
attended with important and lasting results. 

In the year 754 Pope Stephen II., who was troubled by the 
Lombards, made a long and dangerous journey to the capital of 
Pepin, and besought his aid against the barbarians. Pepin, quick 
to return the favor which the head of the Church had rendered 
him in the bestowal of his crown, straightway crossed the Alps 
with a large army, expelled the Lombards from their recent con- 
quests, and made a donation to the Pope of the recaptured cities 
and provinces (755). 

This famous gift may be regarded as having laid the basis of the 
temporal sovereignty of the Popes ; for though Pepin probably 
did not intend to convey to the Papal See the absolute sovereignty 



110 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

of the transferred lands, after a time the Popes claimed this, and 
finally came to exercise within the limits of the donated territory 
all the rights and powers of independent temporal rulers. 

Accession of Charlemagne. — Pepin died in the year 768, and 
his kingdom passed into the hands of his two sons Carloman and 
Charles ; but within three years the death of Carloman and .the 
free votes of the Franks conferred the entire kingdom upon 
Charles, better known by the name he achieved of Charlemagne, 
or " Charles the Great." 

His Campaigns. — Charlemagne's long reign of nearly half a 
century — he ruled forty-six years — was filled with military expe- 
ditions and conquests, by which he so extended the boundaries of 
his dominions that at his death they embraced the larger part of 
Western Europe. He made fifty-two military campaigns, the chief 
of which were against the Lombards, the Saracens, and the Saxons. 
Of these we will speak briefly. 

Among Charlemagne's first undertakings was a campaign 
against the Lombards, whose king Desiderius, a bitter enemy of 
the Frankish monarch, had given an asylum to the children of 
Carloman, and had asked Pope Adrian to anoint them as the suc- 
cessors of their father. The Pope refusing to do as Desiderius 
desired, the barbarian threatened to seize his little territory, and 
was proceeding to carry out his threat, when the Pope appealed for 
aid to his friend Charlemagne. The king at once marched into 
Italy, wrested from Desiderius all his possessions, shut up the un- 
fortunate king in a monastery, and placed on his own head the 
famous iron crown of the Lombards. While in Italy he visited 
Rome, and in return for the favor of the Pope, confirmed the dona- 
tion of his father Pepin (774). 

In the ninth year of his reign Charlemagne gathered his warriors 
for a crusade against the Saracens in Spain. He crossed the 
Pyrenees and succeeded in winning from the Moslems all the 
northeastern corner of the peninsula. As he was leading his vic- 
torious bands back across the Pyrenees, the rear of his army, under 
the lead of the famous paladin Roland, while hemmed in by the 



RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 11] 

walls of the Pass of Roncesvalles, was set upon by the wild moun- 
taineers (the Gascons and the Basques), and cut to pieces before 
Charlemagne could give relief. Of the details of this event no 
authentic account has been preserved ; but long afterwards it 
formed the favorite theme of the tales and songs of the Trouba- 
dours of Southern France. 

But by far the greater number of the campaigns of Charlemagne 
were directed against the pagan Saxons, who almost alone of the 
German tribes still retained their ancient idolatry. Thirty years 
and more of his reign were occupied in these wars across the 
Rhine. The Saxons were fighting not only for their homes, but 
for their religion ; for the establishment of Christianity among 
them was one of Charlemagne's objects in attempting their sub- 
jugation. The Frankish king seemed to deem it a duty and 
merit, if not a privilege, to employ his sword in driving the pagans 
within the fold of the Church. 

Reduced to submission again and again, as often did they rise 
in desperate revolt. The "heroic Witikind was the " second Ar- 
minius " who encouraged his countrymen to resist to the last the 
intruders upon their soil. Finally Charlemagne, angered beyond 
measure by the obstinacy of the barbarians in refusing to accept 
him as their sovereign, and Christianity as their religion, caused 
4500 prisoners in his hands to be massacred in revenge for the 
contumacy of the nation. Witikind at last yielded, threw himself 
upon the mercy of Charlemagne, was kindly treated, received the 
communion of baptism, and ended his life in a monastery. Many 
of his countrymen fled across the sea to Scandinavia, and their 
descendants — such is the retribution in events — helped to man 
the ships of the Vikings, the commencement of whose depreda- 
tions on his subjects Charlemagne himself lived to lament. 

Restoration of the Empire in the West (800). — An event 
of seemingly little real moment, yet, in its influence upon succeed- 
ing affairs, of the very greatest importance, now claims our atten- 
tion. Pope Leo III. having called upon Charlemagne for aid 
against a hostile faction at Rome, the king soon appeared in per- 



112 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

son at the capital, and punished summarily the disturbers of the 
peace of the Church. The gratitude of Leo led him at this time 
to make a most signal return for the many services of the Frankish 
king. To understand his act a word of explanation is needed. 

For a considerable time a variety of circumstances had been 
fostering a growing feeling of enmity between the Italians and 
the Emperors at Constantinople. Disputes had arisen between 
the churches of the East and those of the West, and the Byzantine 
rulers had endeavored to compel the Italian churches to introduce 
certain changes and reforms in their worship, which thing had 
aroused the most determined opposition of the Roman bishops, who 
denounced the Eastern Emperors as schismatics and heretics. (See 
p. 140.) And while persecuting the orthodox churches of the West, 
these unworthy Emperors had allowed the Christian lands of the 
East to fall a prey to the Arabian infidels. 

Just at this time, moreover, by the crime of the Empress Irene, 
who had deposed her son Constantine VI., and put out his eyes, 
that she might have his place, the Byzantine throne was vacant, in 
the estimation of the Italians, who contended that the crown of 
the Caesars could not be worn by a woman. Confessedly it was 
time that the Pope should exercise the power reposing in him as 
Head of the Church, and take away from the heretical and effemi- 
nate Greeks the Imperial crown, and bestow it upon some strong 
and orthodox and worthy prince in the West. 

Now, among all the Teutonic chiefs of Western Christendom, 
there was none who could dispute the claims to the honor with the 
King of the Franks, the representative of a most illustrious house, 
and the strongest champion of the young Christianity of the West 
against her pagan foes. Accordingly, as Charlemagne was parti- 
cipating in the festivities of Christmas Day in the Cathedral of St. 
Peter at Rome, the Pope approached the kneeling king, — who 
claimed afterwards that he was wholly ignorant of the designs of 
his friend, — and placing a crown of gold upon his head, pro- 
claimed him Emperor of the Romans, and the rightful and 
consecrated successor of Caesar Augustus and Constantine (800). 



RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 113 

The intention of Pope Leo was, by a sort of reversal of the act 
of Constantine, to bring back from the East the seat of the Im- 
perial court ; but what he really accomplished was a restoration of 
the line of Emperors in the West, which 324 years before had 
been ended by Odoacer, when he dethroned Augustulus and sent 
the royal vestments to Constantinople. We say this was what he 
actually effected ; for the Greeks of the East, disregarding wholly 
what the Roman people and the Pope had done, maintained their 
line of emperors just as though nothing had occurred in Italy. So 
now from this time on for centuries there were two Emperors, one 
in the East, and another in the West, each claiming to be the 
rightful successor of Caesar Augustus, and each upon occasion 
denouncing the other as a pretender and an imposter. 1 

The domains over which Charlemagne ruled with imperial 
authority were quite as ample as those embraced within the most 
extended limits of the old Roman Empire in the West. Africa 
and almost all of Spain were, indeed, in the hands of the Saracens, 
and Britain was held by the Saxons ; but almost all of Italy (the 
southern part was still held by the Greek Emperors), modern 

1 From this time on it will be proper for us to use the terms Western 
Empire and Eastern Empire. These names should not, however, be employed 
before this time, for the two parts of the old Roman Empire were simply 
administrative divisions of a single empire; but we may properly enough 
speak of the Roman Empire in the West, and the Roman Empire in the 
East, or of the Western and Eastern Emperors. What it is very essential to 
note is, that Charlemagne in restoring the line of the Western Emperors, 
actually destroyed the unity of the old Empire, so that from this time until the 
destruction of the Eastern Empire in 1453, there were, as we have said in the 
text, two rival Emperors, each in theory having rightful suzerainty of the whole 
world, whereas the two Emperors in Roman times were the co-rulers of 
a single and indivisible Wo rid- Empire. See Bryce's The Holy Roman Empire. 

The line of Western Teutonic Emperors was maintained until the pres- 
ent century, when it was ended by the act of Napoleon in the dismemberment 
of Germany (1806). The Holy Roman Empire, as this western empire came 
to be called, played a most important part, as we shall see, in the affairs of 
mediaeval Europe. It was, indeed, scarcely more than a name; but then there 
is often very much in a name. 



114 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Hungary obeyed his 
commands, and their numerous and varied tribes and peoples 
swore fealty to him as Emperor. 

Charlemagne's Death : his Character and Work. — Charle- 
magne enjoyed the Imperial dignity only fourteen years, dying in 
814. Within the cathedral at Aachen, in a tomb which he himself 
had built, the dead monarch was placed upon a throne, with 
his royal robes around him, his good sword by his side, and the 
Bible open on his lap. It seemed as though men could not be- 
lieve that his reign was over. And it was not. 

By the almost universal verdict of students of the mediaeval 
period, Charles the Great has been pronounced the most imposing 
personage that appears between the fall of Rome and the fifteenth 
century. " He stands alone," says Hallam, " like a beacon upon 
a waste, or a rock in the broad ocean." He is the King Arthur 
of the French — the favorite hero of mediaeval minstrelsy. His 
greatness has erected an enduring monument for itself in his 
name, the one by which he is best known — Charlemagne. 

In the breadth and boldness of his plans, and in the swiftness 
that marked their execution, he has been compared to Alexander, 
to Caesar, and to Peter the Great of Russia. In the protection and 
patronage of the Church he was a second Constantine. To all 
laws he would give the sanction of religion. He founded schools, 
regulated manufactures and commerce, built a navy, reformed the 
laws, collected libraries, established at Paris the first European 
college, and remodeled his capital Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) in a 
manner worthy of an Augustus or a Hadrian. 

Like King Alfred of England, Charlemagne was a student 
as diligent as his busy life would admit. He emulated Ptolemy 
Philadelphus in converting his court into a symposium of the 
learned men of the times. He invited the famous Anglo-Saxon 
monk Alcuin from England to become his tutor. In his old age 
he at least tried to learn to write ; and it is said that he could 
converse in Latin, and that he read, though doubtless with 
difficulty, the language of Aristotle. 




IN THE TIME OF 

CHARLES THE GREAT 

814. / 



Roman Empire oftfu 

Roman "Empire of the 1 
and its dependent Stab 







Slruthcrs, Servoss .Si Co., Eugr".. N.Y. 



CHARLEMAGNE'S CHARACTER AND WORK. 115 

The fame of his greatness certainly reached as far as the distant 
court of the Caliphs of Bagdad ; for Haroun-al-Raschid sent him 
a curious water-clock, which, with its self-opening doors and 
moving figures, attested at once, as has been remarked, the friend- 
ship of the Caliph and the ingenuity of the Arabian artists. 

But we must not allow our admiration for the great abilities and 
magnificent achievements of Charlemagne to blind our eyes to his 
many faults. He was a reformer, truly, but a despotic and sel- 
fishly ambitious one. The means he employed to effect his ends 
— which were in the main usually desirable — were often harsh 
and unscrupulous. Thus the conversion of the pagans was without 
doubt a very desirable reform ; but the manner in which Charle- 
magne went about the work was very arbitrary and unreasonable. 
The sword is not the best means by which to convert a man. 
Again, the murder of his Saxon prisoners was a most atrocious 
crime, which will ever leave a dark stain upon the name of the 
great Frankish king. Neither was his domestic life unspotted, 
and this alone prevented his being placed on the regular Roman 
calendar of the saints. 

The French form of the name under which the Frankish mon- 
arch has passed into history has fostered the misconception that 
he was a French king. But in fact Charlemagne was simply a 
Teutonic prince, sustaining exactly the same relation to the Latin- 
ized inhabitants of the Old Empire as was held by Theodoric, or 
Euric, or Clovis. "The coming to power of the Carolingians," 
writes Freeman, "was almost like a second German conquest of 
Gaul." " Charles [Charlemagne] above all things," Church says, 
" was a German. He was in language, in ideas, in policy, in tastes, 
in his favorite dwelling places, a Teutonic, not a Latin or Latinized 
king; . . . and his characteristic work was to lay the founda- 
tions of modern and civilized Germany, and indirectly, of the new 
commonwealth of nations, which was to rise in the west of 
Europe." 

Respecting the general influence of Charlemagne's work, Alzog 
declares that "his untiring energy, displayed and felt in every 



116 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

corner of his wide empire, laid the foundation of all that is noble 
and beautiful and useful in the history of the Middle Ages." 

Division of the Empire ; Treaty of Verdun (843) . — Like 
the kingdom of Alexander and that of many another great con- 
queror, the mighty empire of Charlemagne fell to pieces soon 
after his death. " His sceptre was the bow of Ulysses which 
could not be drawn by any weaker hand." 

The empire had been consolidated by four such men of ability, 
energy, and genius as seldom succeed one another in the same 
labor ; but with Charlemagne the short-lived glory of the house of 
the Carolingians passed away forever. 

The surname Debonair, the "good-natured," which was given 
to his son Lewis I., was rather expressive of contempt for his 
feeble virtues than of complacency in the amiability of his disposi- 
tion. He was a zealous patron of the Church ; but in him the 
vigorous piety of Charlemagne had degenerated into the nerveless 
devotion of the monk. He associated with himself in the govern- 
ment his four sons, Charles, Lewis, Pepin, and Lothar, whose 
quarrels kept the kingdom in constant turmoil, and made bitter 
the last days of their father. 

Upon the death of Lewis I. fierce contention broke out afresh 
among the surviving princes, 1 and 100,000 lives were sacrificed 
in the unnatural strife. Finally, by the famous Treaty of Verdun 
(843), the empire was divided as follows: to Charles was given 
France ; to Lewis, Germany ; and to Lothar, Italy with a narrow 
wedge of land extending from Switzerland to the mouth of the 
Rhine, and with this also the Imperial title. 

This treaty is celebrated, not only because it was the first great 
treaty among the European states, but also on account of its 
marking the divergence from one another, and in some sense 
the origin, of three of the great nations of modern Europe, — 
of France, Germany, and Italy. 

1 Pepin died two years before his father (in 838), and the part of the 
empire that had been given to him was divided between Charles and Lothar. 



CONCLUSION. 117 

Conclusion. — After this dismemberment of the dominions of 
Charlemagne the annals of the different branches of the Caro- 
lingian family become intricate, wearisome, and uninstructive. 
A fate as dark and woeful as that which, according to Grecian 
story, overhung the house of Labdacus, seemed to brood over 
the house of Charlemagne. In all its different lines a strange 
and adverse destiny awaited the lineage of the great king. The 
tenth century witnessed the extinction of the family. "The 
old and the young, the ripe and the immature," says Palgrave, 
" were all swept away : some, according to the ordinary course 
of human life, but many more by strange diseases, by meam 
trivial, or household accidents, by unexpected, and as one might 
say, unreasonable contingencies." 

In France the Carolinians finally gave place to the Capetians 
(987), with which line of kings the history of France proper 
begins. By this time the Romano-Celtic element had com- 
pletely triumphed over the Teutonic, had absorbed and assim- 
ilated it or thrown it off, — had averted what seemed inevitable in 
the days of the first Carolingians, namely, that the intruding 
German element would so impress itself upon the Latinized 
Gauls that their country would become simply an extension of 
Germany. 



118 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE NORTHMEN. 

I. Introductory. 

The People and the Northern Lands. — Northmen, Norse- 
men, Scandinavians, are different names applied in a general 
way to the early inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. 
For the reason that those making settlements in England came 
for the most part from Denmark, the term Danes is often used 
with the same wide application by the English writers. 

These people were very near kin to those tribes — Angles, 
Saxons, Franks, Burgimdians, and Goths — that spread them- 
selves over the western provinces of the Roman Empire. They 
were Teutons in language, religion, habits, and spirit. We can- 
not be certain when they took possession of the northern penin- 
sulas, but it is probable that they had entered those countries 
long before Caesar invaded Gaul. 

If we think it strange that any of the Teutonic tribes should 
have chosen homes in those dreary regions, where the mid-winter 
sun scarcely appears above the southern horizon and the land 
and water are locked in frost and ice for a large portion of the 
year, we must call to mind that these peoples when they entered 
Europe were still shepherds and hunters ; and that of all the 
European countries the Scandinavian peninsula, rough with 
mountains and indented with numerous fiords, affords one of the 
best hunting and fishing districts of Europe — a region which 
even now invites each summer the sportsman from England and 
other lands. Besides, the country abounds in iron and copper, 
which metals these German warriors had learned to employ in 



THE NORTHMEN AS TIKATES AND COLONIZERS. 119 

the manufacture of their arms ; and this was an additional attrac- 
tion to the barbarians. 

The Northmen as Pirates and Colonizers. — For the first eight 
centuries of our era the Norsemen are hidden from our view in 
their remote northern home ; but with the opening of the ninth 
century their black piratical crafts are to be seen creeping along 
all the coasts of Germany, Gaul, and the British Isles, and even 
venturing far up their inlets and creeks. 

Every summer these dreaded sea-rovers made swift descents 
upon the exposed shores of these countries, plundered, burned, 
murdered ; and then upon the approach of the stormy season, 
they returned to winter in the sheltered fiords of the northern 
peninsula. After a time the bold corsairs began to winter in the 
lands they had harried during the summer; and soon all the 
shores of the countries visited were dotted with their stations or 
settlements. With a foothold once secured, fresh bands came 
from the crowded lands of the north ; the winter stations grew 
into permanent colonies ; the surrounding country was gradually 
wrested from the natives ; and in course of time the settlements 
coalesced into a real kingdom. 

Thus Northern Gaul fell at last so completely into the hands of 
the Northmen as to take from them the name of Normandy ; 
while Eastern England, crowded with settlers from Denmark and 
surrendered to Danish law, became known as the Danelagh. 
From Normandy, as a new base of operations, fresh colonies went 
out, and made conquests and settlements in England, Sicily, and 
Southern Italy. While these things were going on in Europe, 
other bands of Northmen were pushing out into the western seas 
and colonizing Iceland and Greenland, and probably visiting the 
shores of the American continent. 

Commencing in the latter part of the eighth century, these 
marauding expeditions and colonizing enterprises did not cease 
until the eleventh century was far advanced. The consequences 
of this wonderful outpouring of the Scandinavian peoples were so 
important and lasting that the movement may well be compared, 



120 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

as it has been, to the great migration of their German kinsmen 
in the fifth and sixth centuries. Europe is a second time inundated 
by the Teutonic barbarians. 

The most noteworthy characteristic of these Northmen is the 
readiness with which they laid aside their own manners, habits, 
ideas, and institutions, and adopted those of the country in which 
they established themselves. " In Russia they became Russians ; 
in France, Frenchmen ; in England, Englishmen." 

Causes of the Migration. — The causes which induced what we 
may call the Scandinavian Migration were, (i) the Norseman's 
love for wild adventure; (2) the overcrowding of population; 
(3) the establishment in Denmark and Norway of great king- 
doms, the tyranny of whose rulers led many to seek in other 
lands that freedom which was denied them at home ; and (4) the 
existence of a rule of primogeniture, which gave everything to the 
eldest son, leaving only the kingdom of the seas to the younger 
members of the family. 

The last-mentioned cause gave leaders to the bands that went 
out, their chiefs usually being portionless sons of the ruling or 
royal families. Because of their royal birth these princes, just as 
soon as they headed an expedition, were given the title of King, 
and so very naturally came to be called Sea- Kings. The term 
Viking, from vie, meaning a fiord or arm of the sea, is more prop- 
erly used to designate those piratical chieftains of humbler origin 
who could lay no claim to royal distinction. 

Settlements in Scotland, Ireland, and the Western Isles. — 
As early as the beginning of the ninth century, a short time after 
the appearance of the Danes in England, the Northmen took pos- 
session of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and of the Hebrides. 
Before a century had elapsed, the latter isles, in connection with 
the western coast of Scotland and the eastern shore of Ireland, 
formed a sort of Scandinavian maritime kingdom, the rulers of 
which often disputed with the Celtic chiefs of Scotland and Ire- 
land the possession of their lands, just as the Danes disputed 
with the English the possession of England. These Northmen 



THE SAGA LITERATURE OE ICELAND. 121 

played a most important part in the affairs of both Scotland and 
Ireland down to the thirteenth century. 

Colonization of Iceland and Greenland. — The first Scandina- 
vian colonists to Iceland were men fleeing from the tyranny of 
Harold Fairhair, king of Norway. They settled in the island 
about 874. In 1874 the Icelanders celebrated the Millennial 
anniversary of the settlement of their island, an event very like 
our Centennial of 1876. The exiles established in the dreary 
island a sort of republic, and made that northern land, centuries 
before Columbus pushed out into the western seas and discovered 
the New World, the home of Freedom. 

Greenland was discovered by the Northmen in the year 981, and 
was colonized by them soon afterwards. Their settlements appear 
to have flourished for several centuries, and a number of churches 
and monasteries were built ; but in the course of the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries the colonists were swept away by pestilence 
and the attacks of the Esquimaux, and other enemies that came 
by way of the sea. 

America was reached by the Northmen as early as the eleventh 
century : the Vinland of their traditions was probably some part of 
the New England coast. Whether these first visitors to the con- 
tinent ever made any settlements in the new land is a disputed 
question. If they did, all certain traces of these had disappeared 
before the rediscovery of the continent by the navigators of the six- 
teenth century. 1 

The Saga Literature of Iceland. — We have intimated that 
the colonists of Iceland were men of quality and convictions, — 
choice spirits from among the Norwegians ; men who exiled them- 
selves from their native land because, like the Pilgrim Fathers, 

1 The story of the discovery of America by the Northmen was committed to 
writing in Iceland between the years 1387 and 1395; and as Columbus is 
known to have visited that island in 1477, ^ i s conjectured by some that he 
may have there learned of the existence of a continent to the westward, and 
by these reports have been encouraged to persevere in the great undertaking 
of his life. 



122 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

they preferred a life of hardship and exile with freedom, to one of 
ease and plenty with unworthy submission. The character of the 
settlers had its influence upon the history of the colony. Iceland 
became not only the hearth-place of liberty, but also the literary 
centre of the Scandinavian world. It was to the Norse race what 
the isle of Chios was to the early Greeks. There grew up a class 
of scalds or bards, who, before the introduction of writing, preserved 
and transmitted orally the sagas or legends of the Northern races. 

About the year 1090 a Christian clergyman, Saemund Sigfussen 
by name, — Iceland had by this time given up its pagan faith, — 
collected the poems then floating among the people, catching 
many or most of them probably from the lips of the scalds. Ballads 
of wild exploits they were, thrilling with the fierce energy of the 
bold Vikings. About two centuries after the compilation of the 
Elder or poetic Edda, as the collection of Sigfussen is called, 
a second, known as the Younger or prose Edda, was gathered by 
Snorro Sturleson (1178-1241), an Icelander of noble birth, called 
sometimes the " Northern Herodotus." 

These poems and legends of the Northern nations, thus pre- 
served to us amidst the snow and ice of the dreary island of the 
North Atlantic, are among the most interesting and important 
of the literary memorials that we possess of the early Teutonic 
peoples. They reflect faithfully the beliefs, manners, and customs 
of the Norsemen, and the wild adventurous spirit of their Sea- 
Kings. 

The Norsemen in Russia. — While the Norwegians were sailing 
boldly out into the Atlantic and taking possession of the isles and 
coasts of the western seas, the Swedes were pushing their crafts 
across the Baltic and vexing all its shores. These corsairs at first 
directed their expeditions mainly against the Finnic and Slavonian 
tribe3 that dwelt upon the eastern shore of that sea, and exacted 
from them a tribute of furs and skins. 

Gradually they extended their authority inland. About the 
middle of the ninth century we find the famous Scandinavian chief 
Ruric and his followers in possession of Kief and Novgorod. 



THE VARANGIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 123 

Either by right of conquest or through the invitation of the con- 
tentious Slavonian clans, Ruric acquired, in the year 862, kingly 
dignity, and became the founder of the first royal line of Russia, 
the successive kings of which family gradually consolidated the 
monarchy which was destined to become one of the foremost 
powers of Europe. 

The princes of this foreign Scandinavian dynasty held the throne 
of Russia for the space of more than seven hundred years. In a 
short time the intruders became assimilated to the native people, 
adopting their language, social arrangements, and religion. In 
a word, these Swedish conquerors became Russians, retaining, 
however, that adventurous spirit and restless energy which were 
the prominent traits of the Norse character. 

The Varangians at Constantinople. — The Grand Princes of 
Russia, the title borne by the successors of Ruric, were very much 
annoyed by the needy and importunate immigrants from Scan- 
dinavia, who crowded the court of their fortunate kinsmen, in 
quest of office or employment. Finally, one of the Ruric princes, 
it is said, rid himself of these troublesome friends, by suggesting 
to them that they should sail down one of the rivers that flow into 
the Black Sea, and seek their fortunes in the service of the rich 
Emperors of Constantinople. They were easily persuaded to a 
course so in keeping with their own inclinations, and soon great 
fleets of the long ships of the Northmen might have been seen 
floating down with the current of the Dnieper towards the south. 

These strong warriors of the North were welcomed by the Em- 
perors of the Eastern Empire, and under the name of Varangians 
(corsairs) were enlisted into the Imperial service, and assigned the 
honorable duty of guarding the person of the Emperor. 

Their position at the Byzantine court was the same as that of 
the Pretorians at Rome, or of the Janizaries in the modern state 
of the Turkish Sultans. In loyalty and devotion to the mas- 
ter in whose cause they had enlisted, they were, however, very 
unlike the turbulent and inconstant Pretorians or the insolent 
Janizaries. Never was a sovereign surrounded by a more faithful 



124 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

guard. They were constantly by the side of their master, in the 
palace, in the streets, in the theater, and their tremendous battle- 
axes, a new and terrible weapon to the eyes of the people of the 
South, were ever ready to hew and smite, in defense of the royal 
life and of the throne entrusted to their keeping. 

They rendered good service to the Eastern Emperors in their 
struggle with the Saracens, being headed sometimes by distin- 
guished Scandinavian chiefs whom circumstances had driven into 
exile, or prospect of adventure had allured to the Mediterranean 
lands. 

II. The Danes in England. 

Their Ravages in the Island. — The Northmen — Danes, as 
called by the English writers — began to make descents upon the 
English coast about the beginning of the ninth century. These 
sea-rovers spread the greatest terror throughout the island ; for they 
were not content with plunder, but being pagans, they took special 
delight in burning the churches and monasteries of the now Chris- 
tian Anglo-Saxons, or English, as we shall hereafter call them. 
Nor were they restrained by any sentiment of pity ; the blood of 
women, children, and priests was mingled often in indiscriminate 
slaughter. They also stirred up the embers of the old Anglo- 
Celtic war, and joining the barbarians of the west side of the 
island, who were known as Welshmen, they harassed the English 
all along the old fiercely contested frontier. 

During the reign of Egbert, the union of the English tribes 
enabled them to offer a very effectual resistance to the incursions 
of the barbarians ; but the division of the authority of Egbert at 
his death among his sons exposed the petty states to all the 
unrestrained ravages of their fierce enemies. In a short time fully 
one half of England was in the hands of the Danes, who had begun 
to make permanent settlements in the land. The wretched English 
were subjected to exactly the same treatment that they had in- 
flicted upon the Celts. Just when it began to look as though they 
would be entirely annihilated or driven from the island by the 



KING ALFRED AND THE DANES. 125 

barbarous intruders, Alfred came to the throne of Wessex 
(871). 

King Alfred and the Danes. — Alfred was the fourth and 
youngest son of Ethel wolf, being born in the year 849. While 
yet a mere child he accompanied his father to Rome, and was 
adopted by the Pope as his grandson. Perhaps this act was not 
without its influence upon the boy, for through all his maturer 
years he was the staunch friend and zealous patron of the Church. 
However this may be, we may speak positively of a mother's in- 
fluence in forming the tastes and shaping the life of England's 
greatest king. Ethelwolf had married a Frank princess, Judith by 
name, who seems to have possessed literary tastes, for she strove 
to awaken in her children a love for books. She is said to have 
excited emulation among them by offering a volume of English 
poems as a gift to the one who should be the first to learn to 
read the same. Alfred, who had a bright and active mind, won 
the prize. The art he had mastered in order to secure the treas- 
ure enabled him, as we shall see hereafter, to confer upon his 
people benefits which subjects rarely receive at the hands of their 
princes. 

Alfred had just reached manhood — he was in his twenty-second 
year — when, by the event of his brother Ethelred's death in 
battle with the Danes, he was called, like the good Marcus Aure- 
lius, to cast aside his books, and as king and head of his people 
to spend his days and nights in the camp, watching and fighting 
the invaders of his land. 

The Danes already held a large portion of England. For six 
years the youthful king fought heroically at the head of his brave 
thanes ; but each year the possessions of the English grew smaller 
and smaller, and finally Alfred and his few remaining followers 
were driven to take refuge in the woods and morasses. 

It is to this period of Alfred's life, when he was a hunted 
fugitive, that two favorite tales respecting him belong, which, 
though they may be mere legends, are yet so in harmony with all 
we know of him, that we may well believe them to be true. The 



126 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

first story, which is too familiar to need repetition, represents 
Alfred, with thoughts busied with larger affairs, as an abstracted 
watcher of burning cakes in a peasant's hut, which had become 
his temporary refuge. The other legend relates how the king, 
disguised as a harper, entered the camp of Guthrum, the leader 
of the Danes, and by his tales and songs, — for Alfred is accredited 
with quite a talent for story-telling and music, — won the favor of 
the barbarians, and was allowed such liberties in their camp that 
he was enabled, during a three days' stay, to learn all about the 
strength of his enemies and their plans. Then returning to his 
companions, he aroused the English, and falling unexpectedly 
upon the Danes, inflicted upon them a severe defeat. 

Whatever may be the truth as to this tradition, it is certain that 
after a time the affairs of the English began to brighten, and that 
Guthrum and his followers being surrounded and surprised by 
them, were forced to surrender. Hoping to make friends by 
clemency of those he had vanquished by arms, Alfred granted 
the most liberal terms to the barbarians, giving them lands in 
the northeastern part of England, which they were to hold as his 
faithful vassals. Guthrum and many of his warriors were bap- 
tized, and we may hope thereafter labored with becoming zeal in 
rebuilding the churches they had sacked and burned. 

After the subjection and settlement of Guthrum and his fol- 
lowers, Alfred's little kingdom was comparatively free from the 
ravages of the Danes for a period of ten or fifteen years ; which 
years of quiet Alfred employed in building a fleet, and in institut- 
ing measures of reform in his government. 

But again the dreaded enemy renewed their forays, led now by 
the famous Hastings. They were finally forced, however, to with- 
draw from the island and seek elsewhere spoils and settlements ; 
and Alfred was permitted to pass his last years in quiet, with at 
least his supremacy acknowledged throughout almost all England. 
The great king died in the year 901, in the fifty-second year of 
his age. 

Alfred's Works of Peace. — Eminent as were the services 



ALFRED'S WORKS OF PEACE. 127 

which Alfred rendered his country in rescuing it from the hands 
of the uncivilized Danes after all seemed irretrievably lost, it still is 
rather upon other grounds that rests his title to the appellation of 
Great, and his claims upon the admiration and gratitude of his 
countrymen. Many of those institutions which distinguish the 
England of to-day from other nations, or which have aided 
in giving her that position of preeminence which she holds at the 
present time, owe their origin to this illustrious prince. 

The fleet which he taught his countrymen to build was the 
beginning of that vast naval armament with which England now 
holds the supremacy of the sea ; while the ancient laws of the 
realm, which he collected and revised, refraining, however, from 
adding many of his own, " because it to me," as he himself 
explains, " was unknown which of them would be liked by those 
coming after me," forms the basis of English jurisprudence. 

But beyond all things else must be extolled those literary labors 
and wise endowments of King Alfred by which he fostered learn- 
ing and gave the first impulse to English literature. By the 
ravages of the pagan Danes the libraries of the monasteries and 
churches had been destroyed, and this rendered still denser the 
ignorance of that ignorant age. Alfred tells us that there was 
not a single person south of the Thames who could translate into 
English the Latin of his prayer-book. The king set himself 
zealously to work to improve this state of things. He established 
libraries, founded seminaries, and at Oxford started schools which 
in time grew into the great university which bears that name to-day. 
It was his design that every youth in the land should be taught to 
read and write. 

But libraries, seminaries, and colleges he saw could be of little 
use to his people so long as all the books were written in an 
unknown language. So the king himself became a translator, and 
turned many Latin works into English, adding so many reflections 
and comments of his own that he fairly earned the title of author. 
In this way he translated Boethius's Consolations of Philosophy, 
Orosius's History of the World, and Bede's Ecclesiastical Histoiy 
of England. 



12S FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

With the exception of some short poems and the famous 
Paraphrase of the Scripture by Csedmon, these were the first 
books that the subjects of Alfred had placed in their hands 
written in their own tongue. Here we have the beginnings of the 
prose literature of England. "The mighty roll of the prose 
books that fill her libraries," says Green, "begins with the trans- 
lations of Alfred, and above all with the chronicle l of his reign." 

His Character. — "So long as I have lived," wrote Alfred, "I 
have strived to live worthily, and to leave to all men that come 
after a remembrance of me in good deeds." It is not strange 
that the memory of a sovereign whose life was shaped by such a 
sentiment should be cherished with undying gratitude and affection 
by his people. 

When we compare England's great king with the only other 
prominent ruler of those times in which he lived, — with Charle- 
magne, — then it is that we realize the elevation and moral gran- 
deur of his character. Both the English and the Frankish king 
were indeed men of rare power and genius and influence, and 
upon both has the world justly conferred the title of Great. But 
Charlemagne was, in too great a measure, the representative of 
Csesarism, of selfish, ambitious absolutism. He loved power for its 
own sake, or because it enabled him to carry out his own selfish 
plans. King Alfred was the representative of exactly the opposite 
of all this. He was, as Thomas Hughes says, the impersonation 
of the divine sentiment, " He that is chief among you shall be 
servant of all." And Green, speaking in the same strain, declares 
that never before King Alfred had the world " seen a king who 
lived solely for the good of his people. Never had it seen a ruler 
who set aside every personal aim to devote himself solely to the 
welfare of those whom he ruled . . . Alfred was the noblest as he 

1 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle here alluded to was a minute and chronologi- 
cal record of events, probably begun in systematic form in Alfred's reign, 
and continued down to the year 1154. It was kept by the monks of different 
monasteries, and forms the most authentic account that we possess of the 
early English kings. 



THE DANISH CONQUEST" OF ENGLAND. 129 

was the most complete embodiment of all that is great, all that is 
lovable, in the English temper." Aptly has he been called the 
Morning Star of Civilization. 

The Danish Conquest of England. — For a full century follow- 
ing the death of Alfred, his successors were engaged in a con- 
stant struggle to hold in subjection the Danes already settled in 
the land, or to protect their domains from the plundering inroads 
of fresh bands of pirates from the northern peninsulas. 

At last the sword of Alfred fell into the hands of the weak and 
inefficient Ethelred II. (979-1016), surnamed the Redeless, be- 
cause he refused to listen to the rede or counsel of his nobles. 
Certainly the means which he employed against the corsairs could 
hardly have been more unadvised. He bought off the maraud- 
ers, taxing his people heavily to raise the ransom money. It is 
easy to divine the outcome of such a policy. Happy would it 
have been for the English had their king possessed a little of the 
spirit of the old Roman who declared that Rome purchased her 
freedom not with gold, but with steel. Just as soon as the Danes 
had spent the money received, they of course returned and 
demanded more, upon threat of fire and sword. 

Finally the expeditions became something more than a few ship- 
loads of adventurers who could be satisfied with payments of gold. 
In the year 994 the kings of Norway and Sweden, Swend and Olof, 
joined their armies and fleets, determined upon the conquest of 
all England. Now for the first time the English had to face the 
organized forces of powerful kingdoms. Ethelred secured a short 
respite for his land from the ravages of the pagans by again buying 
them off; but soon the invaders were back, robbing, burning, and 
murdering. Horsing themselves with stolen animals, they rode 
through the land in every direction, seizing everything portable 
and destroying what could not be carried away. Never did the 
sorely harassed English have more urgent need to pray the peti- 
tion of the Litany of those days, — " From the fury of the North- 
men, Good Lord, deliver us." 

Any effectual resistance to the invaders was prevented, not only 



130 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

by the weak and cowardly character of the king, but by the lack 
Of union among the different counties, for, as the Chronicle says, 
" no shire would so much as help other." At last Ethelred re- 
solved upon a measure the most impolitic and cruel of his wretched 
reign. This was nothing less than the massacre of all the Danes 
settled in England. In extenuation of the proposed crime, it should 
be said that these people were constantly giving aid and comfort 
to their marauding kinsmen ; and that just now there was spread 
abroad a report that they were plotting the death of the English 
king and the murder of the members of the Witan or Great 
Council, and the seizure of the land. 

The Danes were set upon in all parts of the country on the same 
day (1002), and great numbers were slain. Among the killed was 
a sister of Swend, who vowed to avenge her death and the murder 
of his countrymen, by spreading desolation throughout the length 
and breadth of the accursed land. He made good his threat. For 
ten years England was the scene of a most unrelenting warfare. 
There is no need to tell again the old story. The open country 
was harried, the towns were sacked, the churches and monasteries 
robbed and burned. Each year the crops were harvested by the 
sea-rovers. 

A fleet, the largest England had ever built, was gathered to meet 
the enemy on their own element ; but the immense armament was 
lost, either through incapacity or treachery. Finally, in the year 
1 01 3, Swend himself came with an immense fleet and army, drove 
Ethelred out of the land to Normandy, and caused himself to be 
declared by the Witan King of England. The country yielded, and 
now for the first time a foreign king sat upon the throne of Egbert 
and Alfred. 

Swend lived to reign over the subjugated island only a few 
months. He died the year following his conquest, abhorred by 
the English, who always spoke of him as the Tyrant, and persisted 
in believing that he was thrust through with a spear by the spirit of 
Edmund the Saint, whose tomb he had threatened to violate if a 
large sum of money were not paid him. 



THE REIGN OF CANUTE. 131 

Swend's son Canute was chosen by the Danes in England as the 
successor of his father. As this prince was only nineteen years of 
age, his youth and inexperience encouraged the Witan to restore 
Ethelred to the throne, and to call upon the people to take up arms, 
for the recovery of their freedom. 

England was thus divided between two kings. Canute was sup- 
ported by the Danish part of the population and Ethelred by the 
English. Again the flames of war were kindled throughout the 
land. Denmark sent out hundreds of ship-loads of warriors. The 
old English spirit was stirred to its very depths. Even Ethelred 
displayed an alertness and energy which did much towards 
erasing the dishonor of previous years. He died in 1016, but his 
famous son Edmund Ironsides battled on with the hated Danes. 
Well did he deserve the surname he bears. Everything that 
energy and resolute bravery could do to save his fated land he 
did. With a worthy successor of the noble Alfred to lead them 
against their hated foes, the English rallied from one end of the 
land to the other, for a renewal of the desperate struggle. Within 
seven months Edmund fought six great battles. In the last, in the 
words of the Chronicle, " all England fought against Canute, but 
Canute had the victory." 

Soon after this battle Edmund consented to a division of the 
kingdom between himself and the Danish king. This arrange- 
ment was very like that made between Alfred and Guthrum more 
than one hundred years before. 

Scarcely had the affairs of the kingdom been thus composed, 
when Canute was made king of all England by the sudden death 
of Edmund (1016). With Edmund Ironsides passed away the 
bravest and most illustrious of the English kings since the days of 
Alfred. 

The Reign of Canute (1016-1035). — The moment Canute 
exchanged the sword for the sceptre his character seemed to 
undergo an entire transformation. He laid aside the bearing and 
tone of a conqueror and assumed the role of a father administering 
the affairs of his family, as is well illustrated by the favorite anec- 
dote of his reproof to his courtiers. 



132 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

He seemed to think with the Greek poet Euripides, as Freeman 
says, that " unrighteousness might be practised in order to obtain a 
crown, but that righteousness should be practised in all other times 
and places." He thought more of England than of his own Den- 
mark, and all through his reign manifested in ways very pleasing 
to the English his preference for this portion of his empire, which 
at its greatest extent embraced — besides England — Norway and 
Denmark, with a sort of overlordship of Sweden. 

The character of Canute is shown by his famous letter to his 
English subjects during his absence on a pilgrimage to Rome. 

The epistle reads like a message from a father to his children. 
Canute tells his people all about the things he had seen, what had 
befallen him, how he had been treated by the Emperor and the 
Pope and the other great persons he had met, and how he had 
secured from the head of the Church great and special privileges 
for the Christians of England. And then as his heart seems to 
overflow with a sense of his blessings and the kindness of Provi- 
dence to himself, he confesses his errors of the past, and promises 
that he will ever in the future rule justly and in the fear of God. 
And finally he says, " Above all things are men one God to love 
and worship, and one Christendom with one consent to hold, and 
Canute King to love with righttruthfulness." 

Canute, as will be gathered from what has already been said, 
was a zealous Christian and bountiful patron of the Church. He 
seemed to feel that it was incumbent upon him to make atone- 
ment for all the cruel deeds of his pagan father, — for Swend was 
not a Christian, at least for any considerable period of time. 
Canute restored the churches and monuments ruined by the fury 
of the Danes, laid new foundations not only in England, but also 
in Denmark, and bestowed rich gifts upon religious institutions in 
foreign countries. 

Restoration of the English Line (1042). — After a reign of 
eighteen years, a period of almost perfect peace and prosperity 
for England, Canute died in the year 1035. Straightway his 
empire, embracing four kingdoms, the most extensive realms over 



RESULTS OF THE DANISH CONQUEST. 133 

which a single sceptre had been stretched since the times of 
Charlemagne, fell to pieces. 

England was divided between Harold and Hardicanute, both 
cruel and miserable kings, unworthy sons and successors of their 
pious father. Their short and confused reigns present no event 
of interest or instruction. Upon the death without heirs of Har- 
dicanute in 1042 — he had, two years before, on the death of 
Harold, been elected sole king by the Witan — the old English 
line was restored in the person of Edward, son of Ethelred and 
Emma, better known as the Confessor. The wretched reigns 
of the sons of Canute had caused the hearts of the English to 
turn with fresh loyalty to their own exiled princes. " Before the 
king buried was, all folk chose Edward to king at London." 

Thus ended the Danish rule in England, after an existence of 
almost exactly one quarter of a century (1016-1042). 

Results of the Danish Conquest. — The great benefit which 
resulted to England from the Danish conquest was the infusion 
of fresh blood into the veins of the English people, who through 
contact with the half-Romanized Celts, and especially through 
the enervating influence of a monastic Church, had lost much of 
that bold, masculine vigor which characterized their hardy an- 
cestors. The number of Danes that settled in England was very 
large. A considerable part of the country became thoroughly 
Danish ; London, as an old chronicler declares, became a Dan- 
ish city. Being close kin to the English, the Danes added 
no new element to the population; but they invigorated and 
strengthened the old Teutonic stock, which was soon to stand 
in need of all its strength and vitality if it would preserve its dis- 
tinctive character in spite of the disaster destined soon to befall 
the English nation. We allude to the conquest of England by 
William of Normandy, of which important event we shall come 
to speak in a later chapter. 



134 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 



III. Settlement of the Northmen in Gaul. 

Rollo and Charles the Simple. — As early as the commence- 
ment of the ninth century the Northmen began to make piratical 
descents upon the coasts of Gaul. Though Charlemagne with 
his strong arm was able to protect his dominion from their forays 
during his own lifetime, his mind was filled with anxious fore- 
bodings for his successors. Tradition tells how the great king, 
catching sight one day from one of the southern ports of Gaul 
of some ships of the Northmen cruising in the Mediterranean, 
burst into tears as he reflected on the suffering that he foresaw 
the new foe would entail upon his country. 

The record of the raids of the Northmen in Gaul, and of 
their final settlement in the north of the country, is simply a 
repetition of the tale of the Danish forays and settlement in 
England. Indeed, the story seems to repeat itself in the minu- 
test details. At first the bands that came were mere pirates. 
Again and again did the Carolingian kings have resort to the 
device of the English rulers, and buy off the invaders, of course 
with the same final results. At last, in the year 918, Charles the 
Simple did exactly what Alfred the Great had done across the 
Channel only a very short time before. He granted to Rollo, 
the leader of the Northmen that had settled at Rouen, a con- 
siderable section of country in the north of Gaul, upon condi- 
tions of homage and conversion. This treaty was cemented 
by the marriage of the daughter of Charles to Rollo. 

This Norse chieftain Rollo or Rolf has been made the hero of 
innumerable exploits. He was the typical Viking of the North, 
whose life was crowned with wild and daring adventure on sea 
and land. He was surnamed the Ganger or Walker, because he 
was obliged to go on foot, there being no horse large enough to 
bear his legs from the ground. His haughty spirit is illustrated 
by the anecdote of the way in which he paid homage to Charles. 
When told that he must kiss the foot of the king, he very 



TRANSFORMATION OF THE NORTHMEN. 135 

emphatically declared that he would do no such thing ; but 
ordered one of his warriors to perform the ceremony. The rude 
barbarian, fancying but little the degrading service, instead of 
bending his own body, seized the royal foot and lifted it to 
his lips, thereby nearly overturning the king, and exciting the 
laughter of the surrounding barbarians. Charles, much displeased 
as he was, dared not resent the affront. 

Transformation of the Northmen. — "As the Danes that settled 
in England became Englishmen, so did the Danes or Northmen 
that settled in France become Frenchmen." This transformation 
took place sooner in the latter country than in the former, for the 
reason that the Norse settlements in Gaul were more scattered 
than those in England, and consequently the strangers were 
brought into more intimate relation with the native inhabitants. 
Hence in a short time they had adopted the language, the manners, 
and the religion of the French, and had caught much of their 
vivacity and impulsiveness of spirit, without, however, any loss of 
their own native virtues. This transformation in manners and life 
we may imagine as being recorded in their transformed name — 
Northmen becoming softened into Norman. 



136 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RISE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 

Introduction. — In an early chapter of our book we told how 
Christianity as a system of beliefs and precepts took possession of 
the different nations and tribes of Europe. We propose in the 
present chapter to trace the series of circumstances whereby the 
Christian Church, a simple democratic society at the outset, was 
gradually changed into a great monarchy, with the Bishop of Rome 
as its head. 

It must be borne in mind that the Bishops of Rome put forth a 
double claim, namely, that they were the supreme head of the 
Church, and also the rightful, divinely appointed suzerain of all 
temporal princes, the " earthly king of kings." Their claim to 
supremacy in all spiritual matters was very generally acknowledged 
throughout at least the West as early as the sixth century, while 
that as to supremacy in temporal affairs was not approximately 
established before about the eleventh or twelfth century. Their 
temporal power was shattered by the revolt of the kings and 
princes of Europe in the fourteenth century ; and their spiritual 
authority was destroyed in the countries of Northern Europe by 
the revolt of the people in the sixteenth — by that great popular 
movement known as the Reformation, which separated one half 
of Christendom from the communion of the Roman Catholic 
Church. 

The Organization of the Church. — The Christian Church 
seems to have been at first a simple association rather than an or- 
ganization. Preeminence was conferred by character rather than 
by office. But very early in its history it became an organized 
body, with regular gradations of officers, such as presbyters, 



THE PRIMACY OF THE BISHOP OF ROME. 137 

bishops, metropolitans, 1 and patriarchs. In organizing itself the 
Church followed the model of the Empire, the ecclesiastical divis- 
ions conforming to those of the civil administration. 

There were at first four regular patriarchates, that is, districts 
superintended by patriarchs. These centered in the great cities 
of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch. Jerusalem 
was also made an honorary patriarchate. We must bear in mind 
that the Roman patriarchs were also metropolitans and bishops, 
the functions of these lower offices as well as those of the higher 
position being exercised by them. 

Primacy of the Bishop of Rome. — It is maintained by some 
that the patriarchs at first had equal and coordinate powers ; that 
is, that no one of the patriarchs had preeminence or authority over 
the others. But others claim that the Bishop of Rome from the 
very first was regarded as above the others in dignity and authority, 
and as the divinely appointed head of the visible Church on earth, 
even as Christ is the spiritual head of the Church invisible. 

However this may be, the Pontiffs of Rome began very early to 
claim supremacy over all other bishops and patriarchs. This claim 
of the Roman Pontiffs was based on several grounds, the chief of 
which was that the Church at Rome had been founded by St Peter 
himself, the first bishop of that capital, to whom Christ had given 
the keys of heaven and hell, and had further invested with super- 
lative authority as a teacher and interpreter of the Word by the 
commission " Feed my Sheep; . . . feed my Lambs," thus giving 
into his charge the entire flock of the Church. This authority and 
preeminence conferred by the great Head of the Church upon Peter 
was held to be transmitted to his successors in the holy office. 

By the beginning of the fifth century the Roman Bishops had 
very nearly made good their claim. At the opening of that cen- 
tury Innocent I. (402-41 7) was recognized by the Roman Emperor 
as the supreme head of the Church. But probably Gregory the 
Great, who held the papal chair from 590 to 604, was the earliest 

1 After the seventh century the term archbishop was more generally used in 
the West. 



138 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

Roman Bishop to whom the title of Pope, in the modern sense of 
the word, should be applied. l 
Advantage to the Roman Bishops of the Fall of the Empire. — 

The ambitions and claims of the Roman Bishops were greatly 
favored from the very first by the spell in which the world was 
held by the name and prestige of imperial Rome. Thence it had 
been accustomed to receive its commands in all temporal matters ; 
how very natural, then, that thither it should turn for command 
and guidance in spiritual affairs. The Roman Bishops in thus 
occupying the geographical and political center of the world 
enjoyed a great advantage over all other bishops and patriarchs. 

Nor was this advantage lost when misfortune befell the im- 
perial city. Thus the removal by Constantine of the seat of 
government to the Bosphorus, instead of diminishing the power 
and dignity of the Roman Bishops, tended powerfully to promote 
their claims and authority. In the phrase of Dante, it " gave the 
Shepherd room." It left the Pontiff the foremost personage of 
Rome. 

Again, when the barbarians came, there came another occasion 
for the Roman Bishops to increase their influence, and to raise 
themselves to a position of absolute supremacy throughout the 
West. Rome's extremity was their opportunity. Thus it will be 
recalled how Leo the Great, through his intercession, saved the 
churches of Rome from the fate that befell the heathen temples 
when Rome was sacked by Alaric ; and how mainly through the 
intercession of the same pious bishop the fierce Attila was per- 
suaded to turn back and spare the imperial city. So when the 
Emperors, the natural defenders of the capital, were unable to 
protect it, the unarmed Pastor was able, through the awe and 
reverence inspired by his holy office, to render services that could 
not but result in bringing increased honor and dignity to the 
Roman See. 

But if the misfortunes of Rome tended to the enhancement of 

1 Some consider the Papacy as having been inaugurated in 606, in which 
year the Emperor Phocas declared Boniface III. Universal Bishop. 



THE MISSIONS OF ROME. 139 

the reputation and influence of the Roman Bishops, much more 
did the final downfall of the capital tend to the same end. Upon 
the surrender of the sovereignty of the West into the hands of the 
Emperor of the East, the Bishops of Rome became the most im- 
portant persons in Western Europe, and being so far removed from 
the court at Constantinople gradually assumed almost imperial 
powers. They became the arbiters between the barbarian chiefs 
and the Italians, and to them were referred for decision the dis- 
putes arising between cities, states, and kings. It is easy to see 
how directly and powerfully these things tended to strengthen the 
authority and increase the influence of the Roman See. 

The Missions of Rome. — Again, the early missionary zeal of the 
church of Rome made her the mother of many churches, all of whom 
looked up to her with affectionate and grateful loyalty. Thus the 
Angles and Saxons, won to the faith by the missionaries of Rome, 
conceived a deep veneration for the Holy See and became her most 
devoted children. To Rome it was that the Christian Britons 
made their most frequent pilgrimages, and thither they sent their 
offering of St. Peter's penny. And when the Saxons became 
missionaries to their pagan kinsmen of the continent, they trans- 
planted into the heart of Germany these same feelings of filial 
attachment and love. The Anglo-Saxon St. Boniface, " the apostle 
of Germany," with whose labors we are already familiar, while 
winning the heathen of the German forests to a love for the Cross, 
inspired them also with a profound reverence for the Roman See. 
Boniface himself took a solemn oath of fealty to the Roman Pon- 
tiff, and the bishops of the German churches that arose through 
the efforts of this zealous apostle were required to promise a like 
obedience to Rome. And it was through the influence of the same 
devoted missionary that in the Council of Frankfort, held in 742, 
the bishops of Gaul and Germany resolved that the metropolitans 
or archbishops of the Gallic and German churches should receive 
the pallium from the hands of the Pope, in token of their subjec- 
tion and allegiance to the Roman See. 

Thus was Rome exalted in the eyes of the children of the 



140 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

churches of the West, until Gregory II. (715-731) writing the 
Eastern Emperor, could say with truth, " By them we are consid- 
ered as a God upon earth." 

War of the Iconoclasts. — The dispute about the worship of 
images, known in church history as the " War of the Iconoclasts," 
which broke out in the eighth century between the Greek churches 
of the East and the Latin churches of the West, drew after it far- 
reaching consequences as respects the growing power of the Roman 
Pontiffs. 

Even long before the seventh century, at which time the power 
of Mohammedanism arose, Christianity had lost very much of its 
early simplicity and purity. It had undergone a process of pagan- 
ization. The churches both in the East and in the West were 
crowded with images or pictures of the apostles, saints, and mar- 
tyrs, which to the ignorant classes at least were objects of adoration 
and worship. They were believed to possess miraculous virtues 
and powers. Every city and almost every church possessed its 
wonder-working image, the patron and protector of the place. 
It is easy to understand then the effect produced upon the minds 
of men, when in the seventh century the Cross everywhere through- 
out the East went down before the Crescent, and the images of 
apostles and saints were found powerless to protect even their 
own shrines. The feeling awakened among the Eastern Christians 
by these disasters was precisely the same as that aroused among the 
pagan inhabitants of the Roman Empire, when, amidst the calam- 
ities of the barbarian invasion, the ancient deities were found 
powerless to give protection to the cities and temples of which they 
had been thought the special guardians. 

The Moslem conquerors, reproaching the Christians as idolaters, 
broke to pieces the images about the very altars, and yet no fire 
fell from heaven to punish the sacrilege. The Christians were 
filled with shame and confusion. A strong party arose, who, like 
the party of reform among the ancient Hebrews, declared that God 
had given the Church over into the hands of infidels because the 
Christians had departed from his true worship and fallen into gross 



WAR OF THE ICONOCLASTS. 141 

idolatry. These opposers of the use and worship of images took 
the name of Iconoclasts (image-breakers). They were the re- 
formers of the East. At a great ecclesiastical council held at 
Constantinople in 754, it was decreed that " all visible symbols 
of Christ, except in the eucharist, were either blasphemous or 
heretical; that image-worship was a corruption of Christianity, 
and a revival of paganism ; and that all such monuments of idol- 
atry should be broken or erased." 

Leo the Isaurian, who came to the throne of Constantinople in 
717, was a most zealous Iconoclast. The Greek churches of the 
East having been cleared of images, the Emperor resolved to clear 
also the Latin churches of the West of these symbols of idolatry. 
To this end he issued a decree that they should not be used. 

The Bishop of Rome not only opposed the execution of the 
edict, but by the ban of excommunication cut off the Emperor and 
all the iconoclastic churches of the East from communion with the 
true Catholic Church. The final outcome of the matter was the 
permanent separation, in the latter half of the ninth century, of 
the churches of the East and those of the West. 1 The former 
became known as the Greek, Byzantine, or Eastern Church ; the 
latter as the Latin, Roman, or Catholic Church. 

The East was thus lost to the Roman See. But the loss was 
more than made good by fresh accessions of power in the West. 
In this quarrel with the Eastern Emperors the Roman Bishops cast 
about for an alliance with some powerful Western prince. First 
they made friends with the Lombards, whom they soon found to 
be dangerous protectors. Then they turned to the Franks. We 
have already told the story of the friendship of the Carolingian 
kings and the Roman Pontiffs, and of the favors they exchanged. 
Never did friends render themselves- more serviceable to each 

1 By the decree of a synod held at Constantinople in 824 images were 
restored in the Eastern churches, the event being marked by a festival known 
as the Feast of Orthodoxy. But by this time other causes of alienation had 
arisen, and the breach between the two sections of Christendom could not now 
be closed. 



142 FIRST PERIOD.— THE DARK AGES. 

other. The Popes made the descendants of the house of Pepin 
of Heristal kings and emperors ; the grateful Frankish princes 
defended the Popes against all their enemies, imperial and bar- 
barian, and dowering them with cities and provinces, laid the basis 
of their temporal sovereignty. 

The Donation of Constantine and the False Decretals. — The 
ambitious pretentions of the Roman Pontiffs were just about this 
time greatly furthered by two of the most surprising and suc- 
cessful forgeries in all history. These famous documents are 
known as the Donation of Constantine and the False Decretals. 

The object of the former was to support and justify the donation 
of Pepin and Charlemagne by evidence of a similar and earlier 
donation by the first imperial patron of the Church. It " tells how 
Constantine the Great, cured of his leprosy by the prayers of 
Sylvester, resolved, on the fourth day from baptism, to forsake the 
ancient seat for a new capital on the Bosphorus, lest the contin- 
uance of the secular government should cramp the freedom of the 
spiritual, and how he bestowed therewith upon the Pope and his suc- 
cessors the sovereignty over Italy and the countries of the West." l 

The False Decretals, which appeared towards the end of the 
eighth century, were collections of alleged edicts and decisions 
of the early Popes and councils, which, granting their genuineness, 
proved that the Bishops of Rome in the first and second centuries 
exercised all that authority and extensive jurisdiction which were 
now being claimed by the Popes of the ninth century. 

The documents were received by everybody as authentic, the Popes 
triumphantly, yet innocently, appealing to them in support of their 
largest claims. They are now acknowledged by all scholars, Catholic 
as well as Protestant, to have been forged ; nevertheless they did 
their work as effectively as though genuine. It is difficult to believe, 

1 Bryce, 77ie Holy Roman Empire, p. ioo. 

What Constantine really did grant the Church was the right to acquire title 
to landed property and to receive bequests, — a right which she did not enjoy 
under the pagan Emperors. Diocletian confiscated what wealth the churches 
had gathered in his time. 



E C CLE SI A S 7 7c \4L J URISDIC TlON. 143 

what is notwithstanding a fact, that the great fabric of the mediae- 
val Papacy rested very largely upon so unsubstantial a basis as 
these forged papers. 

Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction: Appeals to Rome. — No periods 
are so favorable for the furtherance of schemes of usurpation or 
ambition as times of social confusion and anarchy. Just as the 
disruption of all order and authority through the overthrow of the 
Roman government in the West, provided an opportunity for 
the Bishops of Rome to extend vastly their authority ; so did 
the disorders and violence of the feudal period that followed the 
break-up of the empire of Charlemagne, afford another chance to 
the Papal See, armed now with the authority of the False Donation 
and the False Decretals, for the further extension and consolida- 
tion of its influence and power. To the same end tended the rude 
nature of the jurisprudence of the barbarians, and the incapacity 
of the feudal courts, whereby was encouraged and justified the 
extension by the ecclesiastical tribunals of their jurisdiction ; and 
then the gradual concentration, by the reduction to practice of 
the False Decretals, of all this authority in the Supreme Head of 
the Church, made the Apostolic See the court of last resort for all 
Western Christendom. 

Charlemagne had recognized the principle, held from early times 
by the Church, that ecclesiastics should be amenable only to the 
ecclesiastical tribunals, by freeing the whole body of the clergy 
from the jurisdiction of the temporal courts, in criminal as well as 
civil cases. Gradually the bishops acquired the right to try all 
cases relating to marriage, trusts, perjury, simony, or concerning 
widows, orphans, or crusaders, on the ground that such cases had 
to do with religion. Even the right to try all criminal cases was 
claimed on the ground that all crime is sin, and hence can prop- 
erly be dealt with only by the Church. Persons convicted by the 
ecclesiastical tribunals were subjected to penance, imprisoned in 
the monasteries, or handed over to the civil authorities. 

Thus by the end of the twelfth century the Church had absorbed, 
in theory at least, the whole criminal administration of both the 



144 FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 

laity and clergy. 1 The temporal princes, not perceiving whither 
this thing tended, at first favored this extension of ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction. Thus, for a single illustration, in 857 Charles the 
Bald of France ordered that all thieves, murderers, and other 
criminals should be tried by the bishops, and upon conviction 
handed over to the counts for punishment. 

Now the particular feature of this enormous extension of the 
jurisdiction of the Church tribunals which at present it especially 
concerns us to notice, is the establishment of the principle that 
all cases might be appealed or cited from the courts of the bishops 
and archbishops of the different European countries to the Papal 
See, which thus became the court of last resort in all cases affect- 
ing ecclesiastics or concerning religion. The Pope thus came to 
be regarded as the fountain of justice, and, in theory at least, the 
supreme judge of Christendom, while emperors and kings and all 
civil magistrates bore the sword simply as his ministers to carry 
into effect his sentences and decrees. 

This principle of the subordination of the local tribunals of the 
Church to the court of Rome was not established, it should here 
be said, without a long and bitter contest between the Popes and 
the bishops, — a struggle very like that carried on during nearly 
the same centuries between the kings of Europe and their feuda- 
tories. But, as the final issue of the contest in the temporal realm 
was the subjection of the feudal aristocracy to the royal authority, 
and the concentration of all power in the hands of the kings ; so 
likewise the outcome of the struggle in the spiritual realm was the 
subjection of the ecclesiastical aristocracy to the papal authority, 
and the centering of absolute power in the hands of the Roman 
Pontiff. 

The Papacy and the Empire. — We must now speak of the re- 
lation of the Popes to the Emperors, and at least point out how in 
their struggle with them for supremacy the Roman Pontiffs ac- 
quired enhanced reputation and power. 

About the middle of the tenth century Otto the Great of Ger- 

1 Hallam, Middle Ages, ch. VII. 



THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE. 145 

many, like a second Charlemagne, restored once more the fallen 
Imperial power, which now became known as the Holy Roman 
Empire, the heads of which from this on were the German kings. 
Here now were two world-powers, the Empire and the Papacy, 
whose claims and ambitions were practically antagonistic and 
irreconcilable. 

There were three different theories of the divinely constituted 
relation of the "World-King" and the " World- Priest." The first 
was that Pope and Emperor were each independently commis- 
sioned by God, the first to rule the spirits of men, the second to 
rule their bodies. Each reigning thus by original divine right, 
neither is set above the other, but both are to cooperate and to 
help each other. The special duty of the temporal power is to 
maintain order in the world and to be the protector of the Church. 
The Emperor bears the sword for the purpose of executing the 
decrees of the Church against all heretics and disturbers of its 
peace and unity. Thus this theory looked to a perfect and beauti- 
ful alliance between Church and State, a double sovereignty em- 
blemized in the dual nature of Christ. 

The second theory, the one held by the Imperial party, was that 
the Emperor was superior to the Pope. Arguments from Scripture 
and from the transactions of history were not wanting to support 
this view of the relation of the two world-powers. Thus Christ's 
payment of tribute money was cited as proof that he regarded the 
temporal power as superior to the spiritual ; and again, his submis- 
sion to the jurisdiction of the Roman tribunal was held to be a 
recognition on his part of the supremacy of the civil authority. 
Further, the gifts of Pepin and Charlemagne to the Roman See 
made the Popes, it was maintained, the vassals of the Emperors. 

The third theory, the one held by the Papal party, maintained that 
the ordained relation of the two powers was the subordination of the 
temporal to the spiritual authority. This view was maintained by 
such texts of Scripture as these : " But he that is spiritual judgeth 
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man;" 1 "See, I have 

1 I Cor. ii. : ic. 



146 



FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. 



this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root 
out and to pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, to build 
and to plant."' 1 It was held also that the two swords of which 
Christ said " It is enough," were both given to St. Peter, signifying 
that he was girded with both civil and spiritual authority. The 
conception was further illustrated by such comparisons as the fol- 
lowing. As God has set in the heavens two lights, the sun and 
the moon, so has he established on earth two powers, the spiritual 
and the temporal ; but as the moon is inferior to the sun and re- 
ceives its light from it, so is the Emperor inferior to the Pope and 
receives all power from him. Again, the two authorities were 
likened to the soul and the body ; as the former rules over the latter, 
so is it ordered that the spiritual power shall rule over and subject 
the temporal. In opposition to the arguments of the Imperialists 
founded upon the gifts of Pepin and Charlemagne, was quoted the 
donation of Constantine, and instanced the fact that Charlemagne 
actually received the Imperial crown from the hands of the Pope. 

The first theory was the impracticable dream of lofty souls who 
forgot that men are human. Christendom was virtually divided 
into two hostile camps, the members of which were respectively 
supporters of the Imperial and the Papal theory. The most inter- 
esting and instructive chapters of mediaeval history after the tenth 
century are those that record the struggles between Pope and Em- 
peror, springing from their efforts to reduce to practice and fact 
these irreconcilable theories. The story of this memorable strife 
cannot be told here, but in a following chapter, when we come to 
tell of the culmination and decline of the temporal power of the 
Popes, we shall say something of it. 2 

1 Jer. I : 10. 

2 For a most admirable presentation of this whole subject, consult Bryce's 
The Holy Roman Empire. 



SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

(FROM THE OPENING OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 
BY COLUMBUS IN 1492.) 



CHAPTER I. 

FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY. 

I. Feudalism. 

Feudalism defined. — Feudalism is the name given to a special 
form of society and government, based upon a peculiar tenure of 
land, which prevailed in Europe during the latter half of the 
Middle Ages, attaining, however, its most perfect development 
in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. 

The three most essential features of the system were : i. The 
beneficiary ] nature of property in land ; 2. The existence of a close 
personal bond between the grantor of an estate and the receiver 
of it ; 3. The rights of sovereignty which the holder of an estate 
had over those living upon it. 

An estate of this nature — it might embrace a few acres or an 
entire kingdom — was called a. fief or feud, whence the term Feud- 
alism. The person granting a fief was called the suzerain, liege, 
or lord; the one receiving it, his vassal, liegeman, or retainer. 

A person receiving a large fief might parcel it out in tracts to others 
on terms similar to those on which he himself had received it. This 
regranting of feudal lands was known as subinfeudation. The 
process of subinfeudation might be carried on to almost any 
degree. Practically it was seldom carried beyond the fifth or 
sixth stage. 

1 Meaning technically a dependent and conditional title. 



148 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

The Ideal System. — The few definitions given above will render 
intelligible the following explanation of the theory of the Feudal 
System. We take the theory first for the reason that the theory 
of the system is infinitely simpler than the thing itself. In fact, 
Feudalism, as we find it in actual practice, was one of the most 
complex institutions that the mediaeval ages produced. 

In theory, all the soil of the country was held by the king as a 
fief from God (in practice, the king's title was his good sword), 
granted on conditions of fealty to right and justice. Should the 
king be unjust or wicked, he forfeited the fief, and it might be 
taken from him and given to another. According to papal theo- 
rists it was the Pope who, as God's vicar on earth, had the right 
to pronounce judgment against a king, depose him, and put 
another in his place. 

In the same way as the king received his fief from God, so he 
might grant it out in parcels to his chief men, they, in return for it, 
promising, in general, to be faithful to him as their lord, and to 
serve and aid him. Should these men, now vassals, be in any way 
untrue to their engagement, they forfeited their fiefs, and these 
might be resumed by their suzerain and bestowed upon others. 

In like manner these immediate vassals of the king or suzerain 
might parcel out their domains in smaller tracts to others, on the 
same conditions as those upon which they had themselves received 
theirs ; and so on down through any number of stages. 

We have thus far dealt only with the soil of a country. We must 
next notice what disposition was made of the people under this 
system. 

The king in receiving his fief was intrusted with sovereignty over 
all persons living upon it : he became their commander, their law- 
maker, and their judge — in a word, their absolute and irresponsible 
ruler. Then, when he parcelled out his fief among his great men, 
he invested them, within the limits of the fiefs granted, with all 
his own sovereign rights. Each vassal became a virtual sovereign 
in his own domain. And when these great vassals divided their 
fiefs and granted them to others, they in turn invested their vassals 



ROMAN AND TEUTONIC ELEMENTS. 149 

with those powers of sovereignty with which they themselves had 
been clothed. Thus every holder of a fief becomes " monarch of 
all he surveys." 

To illustrate the workings of the system, we will suppose the 
king or suzerain to be in need of an army. He calls upon his own 
immediate vassals for aid ; these in turn call upon their vassals ; and 
so the order runs down through the various stages of the hierarchy. 
Each lord commands only his own vassals. The retainers in the 
lowest rank rally around their respective lords, who, with their 
bands, gather about their lords, and so on up through the rising tiers 
of the hierarchy, until the immediate vassals of the suzerain or lord 
paramount present themselves before him with their graduated 
trains of followers. The array constitutes a feudal army, — a 
splendidly organized body in theory, but in fact an extremely 
poor instrument for warfare. 

Such was the ideal feudal state. It is needless to say that the ideal 
was never perfectly realized. The system simply made more or 
less distant approaches to it in the several European countries. 
But this general idea which we have tried to give of the theory 
of the system will help to an understanding of it as we find it in 
actual existence. 

Roman and Teutonic Elements in the System. — Like many 
another institution that grew up on the conquered soil of the 
Empire, Feudalism was of a composite character ; that is, it con- 
tained both Roman and Teutonic elements. The very name itself 
is, according to some, a compound of the Latin fides, trust, and the 
Teutonic od, an estate in land. This is very doubtful ; but what- 
ever may have been the origin of the word, the thing it represents 
was certainly compounded of classical and barbarian elements. 
The warp was Teutonic, but the woof was Roman. The spirit of 
the institution was barbarian, but the form was classical. We 
might illustrate the idea we are trying to convey, by referring to 
the mediaeval papal church. It, while Hebrew in spirit, was 
Roman in form. It had shaped itself upon the model of the 
Empire, and was thoroughly imperial in its organization. Thus 



150 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

was it with Feudalism. Beneath the Roman garb it assumed, beat 
a German life. 

Just what ideas and customs among the Teutons, and what 
principles and practices among the Romans, constituted the germs 
out of which Feudalism was actually developed, it would be very 
difficult to say. In some countries, as in England and Scandi- 
navia, there grew up a form of feudal society which was almost 
entirely uninfluenced by Roman institutions ; while in France a very 
different and much more perfect feudal system was developed, 
whose forms were determined largely by Gallo-Roman influences. 

We will now in three distinct paragraphs say a word about the 
probable origin of those three prominent features of the system 
which have already been mentioned, — namely, the fief, the pat- 
ronage, and the sovereignty. 

The Origin of Fiefs. — In the sixth century probably the 
greater part of the soil of the different countries of Europe was 
held by what was called an allodial or freehold tenure. The 
landed proprietor owned his domain absolutely, held it just as a 
man among us holds his estate. He enjoyed it free from any rent 
or service due to a superior, save of course public taxes and 
duties. But by the beginning of the eleventh century probably 
the largest part of the land was held by a beneficiary or feudal 
tenure. We must now see how this great change came about. 

The fief grew out of the beneficium, a form of estate well known 
among the Romans. 1 When the barbarians overran the soil of the 
Empire, they appropriated, as we have seen, a good part of it to 
their own use. The king or leader of the invading tribe naturally 
had allotted to him a large share. Following his custom of be- 
stowing gifts of arms and other articles upon his companions, he 
granted to his followers and friends parcels of his domains, upon 
the simple condition of faithfulness. At first these estates were 
bestowed simply for life, and were called by the Latin name of 
benefices, but in the course of time they became hereditary, and 
then they began to be called fiefs or feuds. They took this latter 

1 Under the name, however, of emphyteusis. 



ORIGIN OF THE FEUDAL PATRONAGE. 151 

name about the ninth century. As the royal lands were very 
extensive these were a very important source of feudal estates. 

Another and still more important source of fiefs was usurpation. 
Under the later Carolingians the counts, dukes, marquises, and 
other royal officers, who were at first simply appointed magistrates, 
succeeded, by taking advantage of the weakness of their sover- 
eigns, in making their offices hereditary, and then in having their 
duchies, counties, and provinces regarded as fiefs granted to them 
by the king. In this way the countries originally embraced within 
the limits of the Empire of Charlemagne became broken up into 
a considerable number of enormous fiefs, the heads of which, 
bearing the names of count, duke, marquis, and so on, became 
the great vassals of the crown. 

Another way in which fiefs arose was through the owners of 
allodial estates voluntarily surrendering the same into the hands 
of some powerful lord, and then receiving them back as benefices 
or fiefs. We shall see, a little further on, how the confusion and 
anarchy of the ninth and tenth centuries caused multitudes of 
allodial proprietors thus to turn their freeholds into fiefs, that they 
might thereby come within the Feudal System and enjoy its advan- 
tages and protection. 

Origin of the Feudal Patronage. — We named the close per- 
sonal tie uniting the lord and his vassal as the second of the 
essential features of the Feudal System. Some have traced this to 
the Teutons, and think it the same tie as that which bound the 
companion to his chief. Others have pronounced it identical 
with the tie that at Rome bound the client to his patron. Still 
others have traced it to the Celtic or Gallic custom of commenda- 
tion, whereby a person subjected himself to a more powerful lord 
for the sake of his patronage and protection. All these things 
indeed are very much alike, and any one might have served as 
the germ out of which feudal patronage, the special relation of 
lord and vassal, was developed. But as a matter of fact it seems 
to have been, particularly in France, the commendation out of 
which the thing sprang. 



152 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Now in time this peculiar personal relation, characterized on the 
part of the vassal by pledges of fealty, service, and aid, and on the 
part of the lord by promise of counsel and protection, came to be 
united with the benefice, with which at first it had nothing to do. 
The union of these two ties completed the feudal tenure. 

Origin of the Feudal Sovereignty. — It still remains to speak 
of the feudal sovereignty. How did the possessor of a beneficiary 
estate or fief acquire the rights of a sovereign over those living 
upon it, — the right to legislate and to judge, to coin money, and 
to wage war? How did these privileges and authorities which at 
first resided in the king come to be distributed among the land- 
holders ? In two ways chiefly, — by the king's voluntary surren- 
der of his rights and powers, and by usurpation. 

Thus the Merovingian and Carolingian rulers very frequently 
conferred upon churches, monasteries, and important personages 
a portion of the royal power. This was done by what were known 
as grants of immunity. Thus a monastery, for instance, would, 
by such a grant, be freed from royal control, and given the rights 
of sovereignty over all classes of persons living upon its lands. In 
this way the royal authority was much scattered and weakened. 

A still more important source of feudal sovereignty was the 
usurpation of the kingly power by the royal officers. Under 
the later Carolingians these magistrates, as we have already seen, 
succeeded in making their offices hereditary, and thus metamor- 
phosed themselves into petty sovereigns, only nominally depend- 
ent upon their king. They became powerful vassals, while their 
sovereign became a suzerain, a shadow-king. By such usurpations 
the kingdoms into which the Empire of Charlemagne was at first 
broken became still further subdivided into numerous petty feudal 
principalities, and the royal power was distributed down through 
the ranks of a more or less perfectly graduated civil hierarchy. 

The Ceremony of Homage. — A fief was conferred by a very 
solemn and peculiar ceremony called homage. The person about 
to become a vassal, kneeling with uncovered head, placed his 
hands in those of his future lord, and solemnly vowed to be hence- 



THE RELATIONS OF LORD AND VASSAL. 153 

forth his man, 1 and to serve him faithfully even with his life. This 
part of the ceremony, sealed with a kiss, was what properly con- 
stituted the ceremony of homage. It was accompanied by an oath 
of fealty, and the whole was concluded by the act of investiture, 
whereby the lord put his vassal in actual possession of the land, 
or by placing in his hand a clod of earth or a twig, symbolized the 
delivery to him of the estate for which he had just now done hom- 
age and sworn fealty. 

The Relations of Lord and Vassal. — In general terms the 
duty of the vassal was service ; that of the lord, protection. The 
most honorable service required of the vassal, and the one most 
willingly rendered in a martial age, was military aid. The liegeman 
must always be ready to follow his lord upon his military expedi- 
tions ; but the time of service was limited, being usually not more 
than forty days. He must defend his lord in battle ; if he should 
be unhorsed, must give him his own animal ; and, if he should be 
made a prisoner, must offer himself as a hostage for his release. 

There were other incidents of a financial nature attaching to a 
fief, which grew up gradually and did not become a part of the 
system much before the eleventh century. These were known as 
reliefs, fines upon alienation, escheats, and aids. A Relief was the 
name given to the sum of money which an heir upon coming into 
possession of a fief must pay to the lord of the same. This was 
sometimes a large amount, say the entire revenue of the estate for 
a year or more. A Fine upon Alienation was a sum of money paid 
to the lord by a vassal for permission to alienate his fief, that is, to 
substitute another tenant in his place. By Escheat was meant the 
falling back of the fief into the hands of the lord through failure 
of heirs. If the fief lapsed through disloyalty or other misde- 
meanor on the part of the vassal, this was known as forfeiture. 
Aids were sums of money which the lord had a right to demand, 
in order to defray the expense of knighting his eldest son, of mar- 
rying his eldest daughter, or for ransoming his own person in case 
of captivity. 

1 Latin homo, whence " homage." ' 



154 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

The chief return that the lord was bound to make to the vassal 
as a compensation for these various services, was counsel and pro- 
tection — by no means a small return in an age of turmoil and 
insecurity. 

Development of the Feudal System. — Although the germ of 
Feudalism may be found in the society of the sixth century, still 
the system did not develop so as to exhibit its characteristic fea- 
tures before the ninth. 

After the death of Charlemagne and the partition of his great 
empire among his feeble successors, it seemed as though the world 
were again falling back into chaos. The bonds of society seemed 
entirely broken. The age was like the anarchical period of the 
Judges in the history of Israel, when every man did that which 
was right in his own eyes, only now every man did that which 
suited his caprice or ambition. The strong oppressed the weak ; 
the nobles became highway-robbers and marauders. 

It was this distracted state of things that, during the ninth and 
tenth centuries, caused the rapid development of the Feudal Sys- 
tem. It was the only form of social organization, the only form 
of government that it was practicable to establish and maintain in 
that rude, transitional age. All classes of society, therefore, has- 
tened to enter the system, in order to secure the protection which 
it alone could afford. 

Kings, princes, and wealthy persons who had large landed pos- 
sessions which they had never parceled out as fiefs, were now led 
to do so, that their estates might be held by tenants bound to 
protect them by all the sacred obligations of homage and fealty. 
Thus sovereigns and princes became suzerains and feudal lords. 
Again, the smaller proprietors who held their estates by allodial 
tenure voluntarily surrendered them into the hands of some neigh- 
boring lord, and then received them back again from him as fiefs, 
that they might claim protection as vassals. They deemed this 
better than being robbed of their property altogether. Thus it 
came that almost all the allodial lands of France, Germany, Italy, 



CLASSES OF FEUDAL SOCIETY. 155 

and Northern Spain were, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh 
centuries, converted into feudal estates or fiefs. 

Moreover, for like reasons and in like manner, churches, monas- 
teries, and cities became members of the Feudal System. They 
granted out their vast possessions as fiefs, and thus became suzer- 
ains and lords. Bishops and abbots became the heads of great 
bands of retainers, and led military expeditions like temporal 
chiefs. On the other hand, these same monasteries and towns, as 
a means of security and protection, did homage to some powerful 
lord, and thus came in vassalage to him. Sometimes the bishops 
and the heads of religious houses, instead of paying military service, 
bound themselves to perform a certain number of masses for the 
lord or his family. 

In this way were Church and State, all classes of society from 
the wealthiest suzerain to the humblest tenant, bound together 
by feudal ties. Everything was impressed with the stamp of 
feudalism. 

Classes of Feudal Society. —Besides the nobility or the landed 
class, who in theory though not always in fact were of gentle 
blood, there were under the Feudal System three other classes, 
namely, freemen, serfs or villeins, and slaves. These lower classes 
made up the great bulk of the population of a feudal state. The 
freemen were the inhabitants of chartered towns, and in some 
countries the yeomanry or small farmers, a limited number of 
whom held their lands by allodial tenure, while the larger part 
held by a free tenure analogous to the fief. The serfs or villeins 
were the laborers who cultivated the ground. The peculiarity of 
their condition was that they were not allowed to move from the 
estate where they lived, and when the land was sold they passed 
with it just like any fixture. 1 The slaves constituted a still lower 

1 There was in some countries a difference between serfs and villeins, the 
condition of the former being almost that of a slave, while that of the latter 
was not so degraded. Speaking of serfs, an old writer says : " These are not 
all of one condition, for some are so subject to their lord, that he may take 
all they have, alive or dead, and imprison them, whenever he pleases, being 



156 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

class made up of captives in war or of persons condemned to 
bondage as a penalty for crime. These chattel slaves, however, 
almost disappeared before the thirteenth century, being converted 
into the lowest order of serfs, which was a step toward freedom. 

Castles of the Nobles. — The lawless and violent character of 
the times during which Feudalism prevailed is well shown by the 
nature of the residences which the nobles built for themselves. 
These were strong stone fortresses, usually perched upon some 
rocky eminence, and defended by moats and towers. From his 
stronghold the robber lord sallied forth with his retainers on 
expeditions of plunder or revenge, and thus kept the country 
all around his petty domain in a state of constant dread and 
alarm. 

France, Germany, Italy, Northern Spain, England, and Scotland, 
in which countries the Feudal System became most thoroughly 
developed, fairly bristled with these fortified residences of the 
nobility. Strong walls seemed the only protection against the 
universal violence of the age. And not only had each lord to 
protect himself against the attacks of neighboring chiefs, but also 
against those of foreign foes, such as the Hungarians and the 
Northmen ; for as there was no central authority to give protec- 
tion to all, each petty lord was forced to look for safety to his own 
castle walls. 

One of the most striking and picturesque features of the scenery 
of many districts in Europe at the present time is the ivy-mantled 
towers and walls of these feudal castles, now falling into ruins. 

Sports of the Nobles; Hunting and Hawking. — When not 
engaged in military enterprises, the nobles occupied their time in 
hunting and hawking. We have learned from their own inscrip- 
tions and sculptures how favorite a royal sport was hunting among 
the Egyptians, Assyrians, and other Eastern peoples. Our Teu- 
tonic ancestors held the diversion in even greater esteem. " With 

accountable to none but God; while others are treated more gently, from 
whom the lord can take nothing but customary payments, though at their 
death all they have escheats to him." 



CAUSES OF THE DECAY OF FEUDALISM. 157 

the northern barbarians," writes Hallam, " it was rather a predomi- 
nant appetite than an amusement ; it was their pride and their 
ornament, the theme of their songs, the object of their laws, and 
the business of their lives." It was the forest laws of the Norman 
conquerors of England, designed for the protection of the game 
in the royal preserves, which, perhaps more than anything else, 
caused these foreign rulers to be so hated by the English. 

Abbots and bishops entered upon the chase with as great zest 
as the lay nobles. Even the prohibitions of Church councils 
against the clergy's indulging in such worldly amusements were 
wholly ineffectual. The monks of a certain monastery sought of 
Charlemagne permission to engage in the pastime on the ground 
" that the flesh of the animals was a great delicacy for the sick of 
their convent, and that the skins were useful in binding the books 
of their library." We are also told how the Archbishop of York, 
about 1320, " hunted with a pack of hounds from parish to parish." 
More than a hundred years before this a Church council had for- 
bidden ecclesiastics to engage in the chase while making such 
clerical visits, from which it would seem that the habit among the 
clergy had become a very confirmed one indeed. 

Hawking grew into a perfect passion among all classes, even 
ladies participating in the sport. In the celebrated tapestries and 
upon all the monuments of the feudal age, the greyhound and the 
falcon, the dog lying at the feet of his master, and the bird perched 
upon his wrist, are, after the knightly sword and armor, the most 
common emblems of nobility. 

Causes of the Decay of Feudalism. — As Feudalism was several 
centuries in coming to maturity, so was it also a number of cen- 
turies in dying. It was, as we have already said, at its height, that 
is, its principles and forms dominated society most completely, 
during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. Even 
before the close of the thirteenth century it had, in some coun- 
tries, begun to decay. 

Chief among the various causes which undermined and at length 
overthrew Feudalism, were the hostility to the system of the kings 



158 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

and the common people, the Crusades, the revolt of the cities, 
and the introduction of fire-arms in the art of war. 

The Feudal System was hated and opposed by both the royal 
power and the people. In fact it was never regarded with much 
favor by any class save the nobles and barons, who enjoyed its 
advantages at the expense of all the other orders of society. Kings 
opposed it and sought to break it down, because it left them only 
the semblance of power. The people always hated it for the reason 
that under it they were regarded of less value than the game in the 
lord's hunting-park. The record of the struggles of the people or 
commons for recognition in society, and a participation in the 
privileges of the haughty feudal aristocracy, — struggles which 
remind us of the contest between the plebeians and patricians 
in ancient Rome, — form the most interesting and instructive 
portions of mediaeval and even later history. 

The Crusades or Holy Wars that agitated all Europe during the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries did much to weaken the power of 
the nobles ; for in order to raise money for their expeditions, they 
frequently sold or mortgaged their estates, and in this way power 
and influence passed into the hands of the kings or the wealthy 
merchants of the cities. Many of the great nobles also perished 
in battle with the Infidels, and their lands escheated to their suz- 
erain, whose domains were thus augmented. 

The growth of the towns also tended to the same end. As they 
increased in wealth and influence, they became able to resist the 
exactions and tyranny of the lord in whose fief they happened to 
be, and eventually were able to secede, as it were, from his author- 
ity, and to make of themselves little republics. 

Again, improvements and changes in the mode of warfare, 
especially those resulting from the use of gunpowder, hastened the 
downfall of Feudalism, by rendering the yeoman foot-soldier equal 
to the armor-clad knight. " It made all men of the same height," 
as Carlyle neatly puts it. The people with muskets in their hands 
could assert and make good their rights. And the castle, the body 
of Feudalism, that in which it lived and moved and had its being, 



DEFECTS OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 159 

now became a useless thing. Its walls might bid defiance to the 
mounted, steel-clad baron and his retainers, but they could offer 
little protection against the balls of well-trained artillery. 

Extinction of Feudalism in Different Countries. — Different 
events and circumstances marked the decline and extinction of 
Feudalism in the various countries of Europe. 

In England it was the contention for the crown, known as the 
Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), in which many of the nobility 
were ruined in estate or killed, that gave the death blow to the 
institution there. The ruin of the system in France may be dated 
from the establishment of a regular standing army by Charles VII. 
(in 1448). The rubbish of the institution, however, was not 
cleared away in this country until the Great Revolution of 1789. 
In Spain the feudal aristocracy received their death blow at the 
hands of Ferdinand and Isabella, in the latter part of the fifteenth 
century. 

Thus we see that, at about the same time in all these countries, 
power passed out of the hands of the nobles into those of the 
kings. Feudalism gave place to Monarchy. The rights and 
powers of sovereignty which during the ninth and tenth centuries 
were distributed among the members of the feudal hierarchy, are 
now reclaimed and absorbed by Royalty. 

But it is to be noted that though Feudalism as a system of 
government now disappears, it still continues to exist as a social 
organization. The nobles lose their power and authority as rulers 
and magistrates, as petty sovereigns, but retain generally their 
titles, privileges, and social distinctions. 

Defects of the Feudal System. — Feudalism was perhaps the 
best form of social organization that it was possible to maintain 
in Europe during the mediaeval period ; yet it had many and 
serious defects, which rendered it very far from being a perfect 
social or political system. Among its chief faults may be pointed 
out the two following. First, it rendered impossible the formation 
of strong national governments. Every country was divided and 
subdivided into a vast number of practically independent prin- 



160 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

cipalities. Thus, in the tenth century France was partitioned 
among nearly two hundred overlords, all exercising equal and 
coordinate powers of sovereignty. The enormous estates of these 
great lords were again divided into about 70,000 smaller fiefs. 

In theory, as we have seen, the holders of these petty estates 
were bound to serve and obey their overlords, and these great 
nobles were in turn the sworn vassals of the French king. But 
many of these lords were richer and stronger than the king him- 
self, and if they chose to cast off their allegiance to him, he found 
it impossible to reduce them to obedience. In a word, France, — 
and the same was true of all other countries in which the Feudal 
System prevailed, — instead of being a nation with a sovereign at 
its head with authority and power to compel obedience through- 
out his dominions, was simply a very loose league of more than 
a hundred sovereign states, held together by ties that could be 
broken almost with impunity. The king's time was chiefly occu- 
pied in ineffectual efforts to reduce his haughty and refractory 
nobles to proper submission, and in interposing feebly to compose 
their endless quarrels with one another. It is easy to conceive 
the disorder and wretchedness produced by this state of things. 

A second evil of the institution was its exclusiveness. It was, 
in theory, only the person of noble birth that could become the 
holder of a fief. So society was divided into classes separated 
by lines which, though not impassable, were yet very rigid, with 
a proud and oppressive aristocracy at its head. It was only as 
the lower classes in the different countries gradually wrested from 
the feudal nobility their special and unfair privileges, that a better 
form of society arose, and civilization began to make more rapid 
progress. 

Good Results of the System. — The most noteworthy of the 
good results springing from the Feudal System was the develop- 
ment among its privileged members of that individualism, that love 
of personal independence, which we have seen to be a marked 
trait of the Teutonic character. Turbulent, violent, and refrac- 
tory as was the feudal aristocracy of Europe, it performed the grand 



CHIVALRY. 161 

service of keeping alive during the later mediaeval period the 
spirit of liberty. It prevented Royalty from becoming as despotic 
as it would otherwise have become. Thus in England, for in- 
stance, the feudal lords held such tyrannical rulers as King John 
in check, until such time as the yeoman and the burgher were bold 
enough and strong enough alone to resist their despotically in- 
clined sovereigns. In France, where, unfortunately, the power of 
the feudal nobles was broken too soon, — before the common 
people, the Third Estate, were prepared to take up the struggle for 
liberty, — the result was the growth of that autocratic, despotic 
Royalty which led the French people to the Revolution and the 
Reign of Terror. 

Another of the good effects of Feudalism was the impulse it 
gave to certain forms of polite literature. Just as learning and 
philosophy were fostered by the seclusion of the cloister, so were 
poetry and romance fostered by the open and joyous hospitalities 
of the baronial hall. The castle door was always open to the wan- 
dering singer and story-teller, and it was amidst the scenes of 
festivity within that the ballads and romances of mediaeval min- 
strelsy and literature had their birth. " It is to the feudal times," says 
Guizot, " that we trace back the earliest literary monuments of 
England, France, and Germany, the earliest intellectual enjoyments 
of modern Europe." 

Another great service which Feudalism rendered to civilization 
was the development within the baronial castle of those ideas and 
sentiments — among others, a nice sense of honor and an exalted 
consideration for the female sex — which found their noblest ex- 
pression in Chivalry, of which institution and its good effects upon 
the social life of Europe we shall now proceed to speak. 

II. Chivalry. 

Chivalry defined: Origin of the Institution. — Chivalry has 
been aptly defined as the " Flower of Feudalism." It was a 
military institution or order, the members of which, called knights, 



162 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

were pledged to the protection of the Church, and to the defense 
of the weak and the oppressed. 

Although the germs of the system may be found in society 
before the age of Charlemagne, Chivalry did not assume its dis- 
tinctive character until the eleventh century, and died out during 
the fifteenth. It thus lasted about five centuries, rising to its 
height at the period of the Crusades, and passing away with the 
system that gave it birth. 

There were three things in the feudal society of Western 
Europe which conspired to produce and nourish Chivalry. First, 
that regard for woman which Tacitus tells us distinguished the 
Germans of his day ; secondly, that love for feats of arms and 
adventure which was an inextinguishable passion of the Teutonic 
heart ; and thirdly, those sentiments of compassion and sympathy 
for the oppressed and the unfortunate which Christianity had 
powerfully tended to awaken and stimulate. Especially was the 
influence of the Church felt in giving shape and character to the 
institution, and in directing the adventures of its members after 
it had once become fairly established. 

Its Universality : the Church and Chivalry. — Chivalry seems 
to have had France for its cradle. That country at least was its 
true home. There it was that it exhibited its most complete and 
romantic development. Yet its influence was felt everywhere and 
in everything. It colored all the events and enterprises of the 
latter half of the Middle Ages. The literature of the age is 
instinct with its spirit. The Crusades of the eleventh and twelfth 
centuries were simply great chivalric enterprises. Feudalism is 
transformed into Chivalry, that is in so far as a decree of the 
Church that it should thus transform itself could effect that result ; 
for in the year 1095 the Council of Clermont, which assembly 
formally inaugurated the First Crusade, decreed that every person 
of noble birth, on attaining twelve years of age, should take a 
solemn oath before the bishop of his diocese " to defend to the 
uttermost the oppressed, the widow, and orphans ; that women 
of noble birth, both married and single, should enjoy his special 



THE CEREMONY OF KNIGHTING. 163 

care ; and that nothing should be wanting in him to rendering 
traveling safe, and to destroy the evils of tyranny." 

This ecclesiastical order illustrates in what way the Church 
fostered the institution, while at the same time it shows how hard 
it was even for the commissioned servants of him who was the 
friend and companion of the lowly and the poor to entertain any 
other idea than the prevailing one of that age, that persons of 
gentle birth were the only ones worthy of much consideration 
even at the hands of a Christian knight. 

Training of the Knight. — When Chivalry had once become 
established, all the sons of the nobility, save such as were to enter 
the holy orders of the Church, were set apart and disciplined for its 
service. The sons of the poorer nobles were usually placed in the 
family of some superior lord of renown and wealth, whose castle 
became a sort of school, where they were trained in the duties 
and exercises of knighthood. 

This education began at the early age of seven, the youth bear- 
ing the name of page or varlet until he attained the age of four- 
teen, when he acquired the title of squire or esquire. The lord and 
his knights trained the boys in all manly and martial duties, while the 
ladies of the castle instructed them in the duties of religion and 
love, and in all knightly etiquette. The duties of the page were 
usually confined to the castle, though sometimes he accompanied 
his lord to the field. The esquire always attended in battle the 
knight to whom he was attached, carrying his arms, holding his 
horse, and in case of need engaging in the fight. 

At the age of twenty-one the squire became a knight, being 
then introduced to the order of knighthood by a peculiar and 
impressive service. 

The Ceremony of Knighting. — The candidate for knighthood 
prepared himself for the ceremony which admitted him to the 
order, by prayer, confession, and fasting. Almost every part of 
the ceremony was typical. Thus after bathing, indicative of 
purity, he was conducted to a bed, which emblemized the heavenly 
rest awaiting him. Arising, he was clothed in a white tunic, 



164 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

emblem of the purity that should mark his life ; over this was 
placed a red garment, symbol of the blood he must be ready to 
shed for God and the ladies ; and over all was cast a black robe, 
emblem of death, which he must expect at last. — Mill. 

After a long fast and vigil, he listened to a lengthy sermon on 
his duties as a knight. Then kneeling, as in the feudal ceremony 
of homage, before the lord conducting the services, he vowed to 
defend religion and the ladies, to succor the distressed, and ever 
to be faithful to his companion knights. His arms were now 
presented to him, and his sword girded on, when the lord striking 
him with the flat of his sword on the shoulders or the neck, said, 
" In the name of God, of St. Michael, and of St. George, I dub 
thee knight : be brave, bold, and loyal." 

The Tournament. — The tournament was the favorite amuse- 
ment of the age of Chivalry. It was a mimic battle between two 
companies of noble knights, armed usually with pointless swords or 
blunted lances. In the universal esteem in which the partici- 
pants were held, it reminds us of the Sacred Games of the Greeks ; 
while in the fierce and sanguinary character it sometimes assumed, 
especially before brought fully under the spirit of Chivalry, it recalls 
the gladiatorial combats of the Roman amphitheatre. 

The prince or baron giving the festival made proclamation of 
the event through all the country, brave and distinguished knights 
being invited even from distant lands to grace the occasion with 
their presence and an exhibition of their skill and prowess. 

As a rule, only knights known to fame and of approved valor 
were allowed to take part in the contest, although sometimes a 
stranger knight was permitted to enter the lists without having 
first divulged his name. Like the contestant in the Olympic 
games, the aspirant for the honors of the tournament must be 
unstained by crime ; he must never have offended a lady, never 
have violated his word, or never have taken unfair advantage of 
an enemy in battle. 

The lists — a level space marked off by a rope or railing, and 
surrounded with galleries for spectators — were gay with banners 



THE TOURNAMENT. 165 

and tapestries, and the heraldic emblems of the contending 
knights. The rich trappings of the steeds, and the magnificent 
apparel of the assembled princes and nobles with their attendant 
trains, made up a spectacle of rare gaiety and splendor. The ex- 
penditures of all concerned in the festival were enormous, and often 
ruinous. An old writer asserts that " gold and silver were no more 
spared than though they had rained out of the clouds, or been 
skimmed from the sea." 

When the moment arrived for the opening of the ceremony, 
heralds proclaimed the rules of the contest, whereupon the combat- 
ants advanced into the lists, each young knight displaying upon his 
helmet or breast the device of the mistress of his affections. At 
the given signal the opposing parties of knights, with couched 
lances, rode fiercely at each other, amidst such cries as " Loyalty to 
the ladies," " Fair eyes behold you, valiant knights." Victory was 
accorded to him who unhorsed his antagonist, or broke in a 
proper manner the greatest number of lances. The rewards to 
the victor consisted of jewels, gifts of armor, or horses decked 
with knightly trappings, and, more esteemed than all else, the 
praises and favor of his lady-love. 

The tournament continued to be a favorite diversion even after 
the spirit of Chivalry began to decline in Europe. One thing that 
tended to bring the amusement into disfavor was the fatal acci- 
dents that frequently marred the knightly encounter. In 1559 
Henry II. of France was killed by a splintered lance while partici- 
pating in a tournament, and this event did much towards effecting 
a virtual abolition of the rude sport. But the amusement, like 
the national games of the ancient Greeks and Romans, had too 
strong a hold upon the affections and imagination of the age to 
become obsolete at once. " The world long clung with fondness 
to these splendid and graceful shows which had thrown light and 
elegance over the warriors and dames of yore." 

The Joust l differed from the tournament in being an encounter 

1 " If the combatants were allowed to use sharp weapons, and to put forth 
all their force and skill against one another, this was the joute h foutrance, 



166 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

between two knights only, and in being attended with less cere- 
mony. 

Character of the Knight. — Chivalric loyalty to the mistress of 
his supreme affection was the first article in the creed of the true 
knight. " He who was faithful and true to his lady," says Hallam, 
" was held sure of salvation in the theology of castles, though not 
of Christians." He must also be gentle, brave, courteous, truthful, 
pure, generous, hospitable, faithful to his engagements, and ever 
ready to risk life and limbs in the cause of religion and in the 
defense of his companions at arms. 

But these were the virtues and qualifications of the ideal knight. 
It is needless to say that, though there were many who illustrated 
all these virtues in their blameless lives and romantic enterprises, 
there were too many who were knights only in profession. "An 
errant knight," as an old writer puns, with too much truth, " was an 
arrant knave." Another writer says, " Deeds that would disgrace 
a thief, and acts of cruelty that would have disgusted a Hellenic 
tyrant or a Roman emperor, were common things with knights 
of the highest lineage." 

But cruelty, treachery, untruthfulness, ingratitude, cowardice, 
baseness, and crime of every sort were opposed to the true spirit 
of Chivalry ; and the knight who was convicted of such faults was 
punished by expulsion from the holy order of knighthood, by what 
was known as the ceremony of degradation. The spurs of the 
offending knight were struck off from his heels with a heavy 
cleaver, his sword was broken, and his horse's tail cut off. Then 
the disgraced knight was dressed in a burial robe, and the usual 
funeral ceremonies were performed over him, signifying that he 
was "dead to the honors of knighthood." 

Decline of Chivalry. — The fifteenth century was the evening 
of Chivalry. The decline of the system resulted from the opera- 

and was of frequent enough occurrence." — Cutts's Scenes and Characters of the 
Middle Ages, p. 412. "The combat at outrance was, in fact, a duel, and only 
differed from the trial by battle [see above, p. 56] in being voluntary, while 
the other was enforced by law."' — James's History of Chivalry, p. 46. 



INFLUENCE OF CHIVALRY. 167 

tion of the same causes that effected the overthrow of Feudalism. 
The changes in the mode of warfare which helped to do away 
with the feudal baron and his mail-clad retainers likewise tended 
to destroy knight-errantry. And then as civilization advanced, 
new feelings and sentiments began to claim the attention, and to 
work upon the imagination of men. Persons ambitious of distinc- 
tion began to seek it in other ways than by adventures of chivalry. 
Voyages of maritime discovery, and commercial enterprise, were 
more profitable, at least, than bootless expeditions among en- 
chanted castles. Governments, too, became more regular, and 
the increased order and security of society rendered less needful 
the services of the gallant knight in behalf of distressed maidens. 

In a word, the extravagant performances of the knight-errant 
carried into a practical and commercial age — an age very different 
from that which gave birth to Chivalry — became fantastic and 
ridiculous ; and when, finally, in the sixteenth century, the genial 
Spanish satirist Cervantes wrote his famous Don Quixote, in which 
work he leads his hero-knight into all sorts of absurd adventures, such 
as running a tilt against a windmill, which his excited imagination 
had pictured to be a monstrous giant flourishing his arms with some 
wicked intent, everybody, struck with the infinite absurdity of the 
thing, fell a-laughing; and amidst the fitting accompaniment of 
smiles and broad pleasantries the knight- errant took his departure 
from the world. 1 

Influence of Chivalry. — "For the mind," James affirms," Chiv- 
alry did little ; for the heart, it did everything." Doubtless we 
must qualify the latter part of this statement. While it is true 
that Chivalry, as we shall in a moment maintain, did much for the 
heart, its influences upon it were not altogether good. The system 
had many vices, chief among which were its aristocratic, exclusive 
tendencies. Dr. Arnold, indignant among other things at the 

1 That is, from the world of romantic literature ; for the satire of Cervantes 
was aimed at the extravagances of the romancers of his times. (Recall 
Spenser's, The Faery Queened) There were not many real knights-errant 
when Cervantes wrote. 



168 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

knights' forgetfulness or disregard of the equal brotherhood of 
men, exclaims bitterly, " If I were called upon to name what spirit 
of evil predominately deserved the name of Antichrist, I should 
name the Spirit of Chivalry." And another indignant writer 
declares that " it is not probable that the knights supposed they 
could be guilty of injustice to the lower classes." These were 
regarded with indifference or contempt, and considered as desti- 
tute of any claims upon those of noble birth as were beasts of 
burden or the game of the chase. It is always the young and 
beautiful lady of gentle birth whose wrongs the valiant knight is 
risking his life to avenge, always the smiles of the queen of love 
and beauty for which he is splintering his lance in the fierce tour- 
nament. The fostering of this aristocratic spirit was one of the 
most serious faults of Chivalry. Yet we must bear in mind that 
we should charge the fault to the age rather than to the knight. 

But to speak of the beneficial, refining influences of Chivalry, 
we should say that it undoubtedly contributed powerfully to lift 
that sentiment of respect for the gentler sex that characterized all 
the Northern nations, into that reverence for womanhood which 
forms the distinguishing characteristic of the present age, and con- 
trasts it with all preceding phases of civilization. 

Again, Chivalry did much towards producing that type of man- 
hood among us — a model type, distinguished by the virtues of 
fidelity, courtesy, humanity, liberalty, and justice — which we 
rightly think to surpass any ever formed under the influences 
of antiquity. Just as Christianity gave to the world an ideal man- 
hood which it was to strive to realize, so did Chivalry hold up an 
ideal to which men were to conform their lives. Men, indeed, 
have never perfectly realized either the ideal of Christianity or 
that of Chivalry ; but the influence which these two ideals has 
had in shaping and giving character to the lives of men cannot 
be over-estimated. Together, through the enthusiasm and effort 
awakened for their realization, they have produced a new type 
of manhood, which we indicate by the phrase " a knightly and 
Christian character." 






INTR OD UC TION. 169 



CHAPTER II. 

THE NORMANS. 
I. The Normans at Home and in Italy. 

Introductory. — The history of the Normans — the name, it 
will be recalled, of the transformed Scandinavians who settled in 
Northern Gaul — is simply a continuation of the story of the 
Northmen. And nothing could better illustrate the difference 
between the period we have left behind and the one upon which 
we have entered, nothing could more strikingly exhibit the grad- 
ual transformation that has crept over the face and spirit of Euro- 
pean society, than the transformation which time and favoring 
influences have wrought in these men. When first we met them 
in the ninth century they were pagans ; now they are Christians. 
Then they were rough, wild, danger-loving corsairs ; now they are 
become the most cultured, polished, and chivalrous people in 
Europe. But the restless, careless, daring spirit that drove the 
Norse sea-kings forth upon the waves in quest of adventure and 
booty, still stirs in the breasts of their descendants. As has been 
said, they were simply changed from heathen Vikings, delighting 
in the wild life of sea-rover and pirate, into Christian knights, 
eager for pilgrimages and crusades. 

It is these men, uniting in their character the strength, inde- 
pendence, and daring of the Scandinavian with the vivacity, 
imagination, and culture of the Romano-Gaul, that we are now 
to follow, as from their seats in France they go forth to make fresh 
conquests, — to build up a kingdom in the Mediterranean lands, 
and to set a line of Norman kings upon the English throne. 
Later, in following the fortunes of the Crusaders, we shall meet 
them on the battlefields of Palestine, there winning renown as 
the most valiant knights of Christendom. 



170 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

The Dukes of Normandy. — Under Rollo (see p. 134) and his 
immediate successors — William Longsword (927-943), Richard 
the Fearless (943-996)^1^ Richard the Good (996-1027) — the 
power of the Normans in France became gradually consolidated. 
The country of Normandy grew more populous, both through the 
natural increase of the population at home and the arrival of fresh 
bands of Scandinavians from the northern countries. Finally, 
after more than one hundred years had passed, years for the most 
part of uneventful yet steady growth and development, the old 
Norse spirit of adventure revived, and Southern Europe and Eng- 
land became the scene of the daring and brilliant exploits of the 
Norman warriors. 

The Normans in Italy. — In the year. 1018 some Norman 
chiefs sailed southward, and landing in Spain, endeavored to 
wrest from the Moors lands for themselves in that peninsula, but 
were unsuccessful in their enterprise. About the same time, how- 
ever, other Norman bands succeeded in gaining a foothold in the 
south of Italy, where they established a sort of republic, which 
ultimately included the island of Sicily. The fourth president of 
the commonwealth was the famous Robert Guiscard (d. 1085), a 
character only less celebrated than the renowned William the 
Conqueror, of whom we are to speak presently. His entire career 
was one series of daring and chivalrous exploits, which spread the 
renown of the Norman name throughout the Mediterranean lands. 

This Norman state, converted finally into a kingdom, lasted until 
late in the twelfth century (1194). It reminds us of the Moor- 
ish kingdom of Spain, which it resembled in many respects. The 
rule of the Normans in Italy, like that of the Arab-Moors in Spain, 
gave the subjugated country its most prosperous era. The govern- 
ment was ably and equitably administered, and all classes, Greeks, 
Italians, Saracens, and Normans, dwelt alongside one another in 
the most fraternal manner. Education was encouraged, and the 
schools and colleges of the Normans, like those of the Saracens 
in the neighboring peninsula, became celebrated throughout 
Europe. 



EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE CONQUEST. 171 

II. The Norman Conquest of England. 

Events Leading up to the Conquest. — The conquest of Eng- 
land by the Normans was the most important of their enterprises, 
and one followed by consequences of the greatest magnitude not 
only to the conquered people, but indirectly to the world. 

In the year 1035 the duke of the Normans, known as Robert 
the Magnificent, the fourth in succession from Rollo, died in Asia 
Minor, while on his way home from a romantic pilgrimage to the 
Holy Land, and his son William, called the Bastard, the destined 
conqueror of England, became the Duke of Normandy. William 
was at this time only seven years of age. 

Before setting out on his pilgrimage, Robert had persuaded the 
Norman nobles to swear fealty to his son in case he himself should 
not return ; but the oath of the proud lords was not strong enough 
to bind their allegiance to the boy of disgraceful birth. For twelve 
years the duchy was torn with contentions between the young duke 
and his rebellious vassals. But the valor, genius, and good for- 
tune of William finally triumphed over all opposition and difficul- 
ties, and he succeeded in establishing his undisputed authority 
throughout Normandy. The cruelty with which he punished 
those of his enemies that had especially awakened his resentment, 
indicated the stern and unrelenting character of the man whom 
destiny had selected to play the most important part in the his- 
tory of the eleventh century. 

We must now notice the situation of affairs in England. In the 
year 1066 died Edward the Confessor, in whose person, it will be 
recalled, the old English line was restored after the Danish usurpa- 
tion, and immediately the Witan, in accordance with the dying 
wish of the king, chose Harold, Earl of the West Saxons, son of 
the famous Godwin, and the best and strongest man in all England, 
to be his successor. 

When the news of the action of the Witan and of Harold's 
acceptance of the English crown was carried across the channel 
to William, he was really or feignedly transported with rage. He 



172 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

declared that Edward, who was his cousin, had during his lifetime 
promised the throne to him, and that Harold had assented to this, and 
by solemn oath engaged to sustain him. He now demanded of 
Harold that he surrender to him the usurped throne, threatening 
the immediate invasion of the island in case he refused. King 
Harold answered the demand by expelling from the country the 
Normans who had followed Edward into the kingdom, and by 
collecting fleets and armies for the defense of his dominions. 

Meanwhile Duke William was making every preparation to 
carry out his threat, and to consummate his long-cherished project 
of the conquest of England. He stirred up all the embers of the old 
Norman hatred of the English race ; enlisted the sympathies of 
Europe in his behalf by a skillful presentation of his side of the 
dispute ; and even succeeded in securing from the Pope, Alexander 
II., his blessing upon the enterprise, and the gift of a consecrated 
banner. The Pope assisted William in his undertaking, in hopes of 
being in turn aided by him to secure increased power over the 
English churches. At length everything was ready for a descent 
upon the English coast. 

Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066) . — While Harold was watching 
the southern coasts against the Normans, a terrible foe appeared in 
the north, led by Tostig, the traitor brother of the English king, and 
Harold Hardrada, King of Norway. The latter had been brought 
up at the Swedish court in Russia, had afterwards commanded the 
famous Varangian guard of the Emperor of Constantinople, had 
fought for the faith against the Saracens in the Mediterranean, and 
now was aspiring to build up in the North such an empire as that 
over which Canute had reigned. To effect the conquest of England 
he had collected an immense fleet from the ports of Scandinavia, 
from Flanders, Scotland, Iceland, and the Orkneys, and having 
descended upon the northern shore of England, was now sacking 
and burning the coast towns. The English army in that quarter, 
attempting to withstand the invaders, was cut to pieces ; and the 
important city of York fell into the hands of the Northmen. 

As soon as news of this disaster was borne to King Harold in the 



THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 173 

south, he instantly marched northward with his army, and at Stam- 
ford Bridge met the invaders, and there gained a decisive victory 
over them. The Norwegian king ended his wild and adventurous 
life upon the fatal field. 

The Battle of Hastings (1066). — The brilliant victory at Stam- 
ford Bridge delivered England from a most threatening danger. But 
Harold and his brave men were now called to face a still more 
formidable enemy. The festivities that followed the victory were 
not yet ended when a messenger from the south brought to Harold 
intelligence of the landing of the Normans. Hurrying southward 
with his army, Harold came face to face with the forces of William 
at Senlac, a short distance from the port of Hastings, which latter 
place gave name to the battle that almost immediately followed. 

The night preceding the battle was spent by the English sol- 
diers in feasting and carousing round their camp-fires, while the 
Normans passed it in prayer and devotion, in preparation for the 
encounter of the morrow. The English were elated over their 
recent victory ; yet at the same time that victory had thinned their 
ranks, and the forced marches that had followed had taxed their 
powers of endurance to the utmost. They were, moreover, un- 
nerved by the knowledge that the blessing of the Pope had been 
given, not to them, but to the enemy in their front. 

With the morning the battle opened — the battle that was to 
determine the fate of England. It was begun by a horseman rid- 
ing out from the Norman lines and advancing alone toward the 
English army, tossing up his sword and skillfully catching it as it 
fell, and singing all the while the stirring battle-song of Charle- 
magne and Roland. The English watched with astonishment 
this exhibition of " careless dexterity," and if they did not contrast 
the vivacity and nimbleness of the Norman foe with their own 
heavy and clumsy manners, others at least have not failed to do 
so for them. 

The battle once joined, the conflict was long and terrific. The 
day finally went against the English. Harold fell, pierced through 
the eye by an arrow; and William was master of the field (1066). 



174 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OE REVIVAL. 

The Completion of the Conquest. — William now marched upon 
London, and at Westminster, on Christinas Day, 1066, was crowned 
and anointed king of England ; but he was yet far from being 
such in fact. The most formidable resistance made to the Con- 
queror was in the North, where the population was composed 
chiefly of Danes, who were aided by their kinsmen from Denmark. 
To protect himself on this side, William finally ravaged all the 
country between the Humber and the Tees, converting it into an 
uninhabitable desert. More than a quarter of a century afterwards, 
the desolated district was marked by untilled fields and the charred 
ruins of hamlets and towns. One hundred thousand people, de- 
prived of food and shelter, perished miserably during the unusually 
severe winter following the cruel act. Thousands of others fled 
the country, and entered the service of foreign princes. Many 
found their way to Constantinople, where they enlisted in the 
Varangian Guard, and helped fight the battles of the Emperors 
of the East. 

The Distribution of the Land. — Almost the first act of William 
after he had established his power in England was to fulfil his 
promise to the nobles who had aided him in his enterprise, by dis- 
tributing among them the unredeemed 1 estates of the English who 
had fought at Hastings in defense of their king and country. 
Large as was the number of these confiscated estates, there would 
have been a lack of land to satisfy all, had not subsequent upris- 
ings against the authority of William afforded him an opportunity 
to confiscate almost all the soil of England as forfeited by treason. 2 

Profiting by the lesson taught by the wretched condition of 
France, which country was kept in a state of constant turmoil by 
a host of feudal chiefs and lords many of whom were almost or 

1 " When the lands of all those who had fought for Harold were confiscated, 
those who were willing to acknowledge William were allowed to redeem theirs, 
either paying money at once or giving hostages for the payment." — Stubbs, 
Const. Hist., I. 258. 

2 " The actual amount of dispossession was, no doubt, greatest in the higher 
ranks; the smaller owners may, to a large extent, have remained in a media- 
tised position \i.e., as sub-tenants] on their estates." — Ibid, I. 260. 



DOMESDAY BOOK. 175 

quite as powerful as the king himself, William took care that in the 
distribution no feudatory should receive an entire shire, save in two 
or three exceptional cases. To the great lord to whom he must 
needs give a large fief, he granted, not a continuous tract of land, 
but several estates or manors scattered in all parts of the country, 
in order that there might be no dangerous concentration of prop- 
erty or power in the hands of the vassal. He also denied to his 
feudatories the right of coining money or making laws ; and by 
other wise restrictions upon their power, subordinating, for instance, 
all the baronial courts to the jurisdiction of the royal judges, he 
saved England from those endless contentions and petty wars that 
were distracting almost every other country of Europe. 

In a word, he gave England a strong central government. This 
was one of the great blessings conferred upon the country by the 
Norman conquest ; for hitherto everything had been too local and 
fragmentary, some of the powerful Saxon barons, as for instance 
Godwin, frequently exercising as much power as the king himself. 

To overawe the dispossessed people, William now built and 
garrisoned fortresses or towers in all the principal cities of the 
realm. His nobles also erected strong castles upon their lands, so 
that the whole country fairly bristled with these fortified private 
residences. With the towns dominated by the great fortresses, and 
the open country watched over by the barons secure in their thick- 
walled castles, the Normans, though vastly inferior in numbers 
to the conquered Saxons, were able to hold them in perfect 
subjection. 

Domesday Book. — One of the most celebrated acts of the Con- 
queror was the making of Domesday Book. This famous book 
contained a description and valuation of all the lands of England, 
— excepting those of some counties, mostly in the north, that 
were either unconquered or unsettled ; an enumeration of the 
cattle and sheep ; and statements of the income of every man. It 
was intended, in a word, to be a perfect survey and census of the 
entire kingdom. In this book the present lords of England may 
see their ancestral estates traced out as the boundaries ran in the 



176 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

times of the Conqueror. The old lines, in many cases, have suffered 
but little change. 

The commissioners who went through the land to collect the 
needed information for the work were often threatened by the 
people, who resented this " prying into their affairs," and looked 
upon the whole thing as simply another move preparatory to fresh 
taxation. But notwithstanding the bitter feelings with which the 
English viewed the preparation of the work, it was certainly a wise 
and necessary measure, and probably was prompted by the best of 
motives. " It was no tyranny, but the work of a great organiza- 
tion, the essential preliminary and accompaniment of a strong 
government." 

The Curfew and the Forest Laws. — Among the regulations 
introduced into England by the Conqueror was the famous one 
known as the Curfew-bell. This law required that, upon the ring- 
ing of the church bell at nightfall, every person should be at home, 
and that the fires should be buried x and the lights extinguished. 

Two reasons have been assigned for this ordinance : the one 
supposes that its object was to prevent the people's assembling by 
night to plan or execute treasonable undertakings ; the other 
represents it simply as a safeguard against fire. The law was cer- 
tainly in force in Normandy before the Conquest ; indeed, accord- 
ing to Palgrave, it was a universal custom of police throughout the 
whole of mediaeval Europe. 

Less justifiable and infinitely more odious to the people were 
the Forest Laws of the Normans. The Normans were excessively 
fond of the chase. William had for the sport a perfect passion. 
An old chronicler declares that " he loved the tall deer as if he 
were their father." Extensive tracts of country were turned into 
forests by the destruction of the farm-houses and villages. More 
than fifty hamlets, and numerous churches, are said to have been 
burnt in the creation of what was known as the New Forest. 2 

1 Hence the term Curfew, from couvrir, to cover, and feu, fire. 

2 The term forest as applied to these hunting-parks does not necessarily 
mean a continuous wooded tract, but simply untilled ground left to grow up to 
weeds and shrubs that might afford a covert to game. 



THE NORMAN SUCCESSORS OF THE CONQUEROR. 177 

The game in these forests was protected by severe laws. To 
kill a deer was a greater crime than to kill a man. Several mem- 
bers of the Conqueror's family were killed while hunting in 
these royal preserves, and the people declared that these mis- 
fortunes were the judgment of Heaven upon the cruelty of their 
founder. 

Close of William's Reign. — All the last years of the Conquer- 
or's life were filled with trouble and sorrow. Especially after the 
execution of Waltheof, the last prominent leader of the Saxons, 
whom he put to death on account of complicity in a plot against 
the Normans, did everything seem to turn against William. " His 
bow was broken, and his sword was blunted." The most trying 
thing, perhaps, was the misconduct of his oldest son Robert, who 
attempted to secure the government of Normandy, claiming that 
his father had promised it to him in case his enterprise against 
England proved successful. Robert was joined in his revolt by 
many discontented nobles, and aided by the French king, who 
had always viewed with great jealousy the growing power of the 
Norman Duke. A reconciliation was at last effected between 
father and son. 

In the year 1087 the Conqueror was engaged in his last quarrel. 
The French king Philip had aroused the fierce anger of William 
by an unseemly remark about his person. In revenge for the jest, 
William made war upon the king and burnt the town of Nantes. 
As he was riding over the smoking ruins of the place, his horse 
stepped upon a hot brand, shied suddenly, and threw William 
heavily upon the bow of his saddle, whereby he received a hurt 
of which he died in a few days. Before his death he made 
known his will as to his three sons : Robert's unfilial conduct was 
forgotten, and he was given Normandy ; William was given Eng- 
land ; while Henry received 5000 pounds of silver. 

The Norman Successors of the Conqueror. — For nearly three 
quarters of a century after the death of William the Conqueror, 
England was ruled by Norman kings. Three names span this 
long period, — William the II., known as Rufus or the Red (1087- 



178 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

noo) ; Henry I., surnamed Beauclerc or the "good scholar" 
(1100-1135); and Stephen of Blois (1135-1154), a grandson 
of the Conqueror. 

Notwithstanding the many oppressive laws and cruel acts that 
marked the reigns of the sons of the great Duke, — William and 
Henry, — England flourished under their rule : commerce and the 
various industries were steadily progressing, and the Normans and 
English, forgetting their enmities, were gradually blending into a 
single people. 

But upon the death of Henry a dispute as to the succession 
arose between his daughter Matilda and Stephen of Blois. For 
several years the realm was wasted by civil war. Eventually, 
through the mediation of the bishops of the Church, a covenant 
was made between the contending parties, whereby it was agreed 
that Stephen should hold the crown undisturbed during his life, 
but that at his death it should go to the son of Matilda. The 
year following this arrangement Stephen died, and the crown was 
placed, according to the treaty, upon the head of Henry of Anjou, 
who thus became the founder of the dynasty of the Angevins or 
Plantagenets (1154). 

Advantages to England of the Norman Conquest. — The most 
important and noteworthy result of the Conquest was the establish- 
ment in the island of a strong centralized government. England 
now became a real kingdom, — what she had hardly been in more 
than semblance before. A second result of the Conquest was the 
founding of a new feudal aristocracy. Even to this day there is 
a great preponderance of Norman over English blood in the veins 
of the nobility of England. A third result was the bringing of 
England into more intimate relations with the nations of conti- 
nental Europe, by which means her advance in art, science, and 
general culture was greatly promoted. 



HOLY PLACES AND PILGRIMAGES. 179 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CRUSADES (1096-1273). 

I. Introductory : Causes of the Crusades. 

General Statement. — The Crusades were great military expedi- 
tions undertaken by the Christian nations of Europe for the pur- 
pose of rescuing from the hands of the Mohammedans the holy 
places of Palestine. They were eight in number, the first four 
being sometimes called the Principal Crusades, and the remaining 
four the Minor Crusades. Besides these there were a Children's 
Crusade, and several other expeditions, which, being insignificant 
in numbers or results, are not enumerated. 

We will tell first of the causes that gave birth to these remark- 
able enterprises ; then narrate with some degree of particularity the 
most important events which characterized the First Crusade, 
passing more lightly over the incidents of the succeeding ones, as 
these in all essential features were simply repetitions of the first 
movement : and then we shall close our brief survey by a glance at 
the causes which brought the movements to an end, and at the 
good and evil results which flowed from them. 

Holy Places and Pilgrimages. — In all ages men have been 
led by curiosity, sentiment, or religion to make pilgrimages to 
spots which retain the memory of remarkable occurrences, or have 
been consecrated by human suffering or heroism. Especially has 
the religious sentiment of every people made the birthplaces or 
tombs of their prophets, saints, and martyrs places of veneration 
and pilgrimage. Benares, Mecca, and Jerusalem attest the univer- 
sality and strength of the sentiment among Hindus, Mohamme- 
dans, and Christians alike. 

Among the early Christians it was thought a pious and meri- 
torious act to undertake a journey to some sacred place. Prayers, 



180 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

it was believed, were more efficacious when offered on consecrated 
ground. Tears of penitence shed above the grave of saint or 
martyr could wash away the stain of the blackest sin. Especially 
was it thought that a pilgrimage to the land that had been trod by 
the feet of the Saviour of the world, to the Holy City that had wit- 
nessed his martyrdom, was a peculiarly pious undertaking, and one 
which secured for the pilgrim the special favor and blessing of 
Heaven. 

Pilgrims began to make visits to the Holy Land from the coun- 
tries of Western Europe as soon as Christianity had taken posses- 
sion of this part of the Roman Empire. At first the journey was 
so difficult and dangerous that it was undertaken by comparatively 
few. Before the conversion of the Hungarians and other tribes 
that held the countries between Germany and the Bosphorus, the 
pilgrim usually made his way to some Mediterranean port, and 
sought a chance passage on board some vessel engaged in the 
Eastern trade. 

It was a great event in a community when a person announced 
his intention of making the holy pilgrimage. He was conducted 
by a great company of his friends and neighbors out of his native 
town, and with the benediction of the priest, and the gift of a staff 
and wallet, was sent forward on his pious journey. 

Arriving at the Holy City, the devotee prayed and wept upon 
every spot pointed out by tradition as the scene of the miracles or 
sufferings of the Saviour. Lastly, he bathed in the sacred waters 
of the Jordan, and from that spot brought back with him a branch 
of palm, which was laid upon the altar of his native church as a 
token of the accomplishment of his pilgrimage. From this last 
circumstance one who had made a journey to the Holy Land, in 
distinction from a person who had made a pilgrimage to some 
other place, was called a palmer. 

Upon his return the palmer became a person of mark and con- 
sideration. Homage was paid him by all classes, special privileges 
were granted him, and a certain sanctity seemed to have attached 
itself to his person and his acts. 



CAUSES OF THE CRUSADES. 181 

Not only was it meritorious to make pilgrimages, but almost 
equally meritorious was it to give aid and comfort to the pilgrim 
and further him on his journey. Hence the wealthy were led to 
build and endow inns and hospitals all along the routes leading 
to the various shrines of the Church, especially along the ways to 
the Holy Land, for the lodgment and entertainment of those mak- 
ing pilgrimages. These hostelries opened their doors to the pil- 
grim upon every dangerous mountain pass, and in every desert 
region through which his journey might lead him. 

Toward the close of the tenth century the almost universal 
belief, founded upon certain passages in the Scriptures, that the 
world was soon coming to an end, and that Christ was to reappear 
at Jerusalem, caused the number of pilgrims to the Holy Land 
greatly to increase. Instead of solitary travelers, vast companies 
might now be seen crowding all the roads leading to Jerusalem. 
There were in these bands men whose hands were stained with the 
blackest crimes, but who believed that the past could be buried 
in oblivion by the penance of the pious pilgrimage ; knights and 
princes who, now that the temporal things of the world were so 
soon to pass away, sought a part in the more enduring glories of 
the approaching kingdom of God ; and pious bishops and arch- 
bishops, zealous monks and anchorites, whose spirits were kindled 
with the holy enthusiasm of lives of prayer and rapt meditation. 

Causes of the Crusades. — We are now in a position to under- 
stand the Crusades. The crusader, as has been said, was simply 
an armed pilgrim. We want now to see what it was that converted 
the pilgrim into the warrior — what caused him to exchange the 
wallet and the staff for the buckler and the sword. 

From the time of Constantine on to the Arabian conquest, the 
holy places were in the hands of the Christians themselves. The 
Saracen Caliphs for the four centuries and more that they held pos- 
session of Palestine, pursued usually — though some of the Fatimite 
rulers of Egypt were most cruel persecutors of the Christians — 
an enlightened policy towards the pilgrims, even encouraging 
pilgrimages as a source of revenue. Haroun-al-Raschid gave the 



182 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

keys of the Holy Sepulchre to Charlemagne, which illustrates the 
desire of that enlightened prince to cultivate friendly relations 
with the Christians of the West. 

But in the eleventh century a great change came over affairs in 
the East. The Sultans of the Seljukian Turks, a prominent Tartar 
tribe, zealous proselytes of Islam, had gradually extended their 
authority, until towards the close of this century they had built up 
a kingdom that stretched from the confines of China to the Helles- 
pont. Asia Minor, which had been only ravaged by the Saracens, 
was conquered by these Tartars, and the city of Nice, almost 
opposite Constantinople, was made the capital of the new barba- 
rian empire (1092). Almost all the Asiatic possessions of the 
Caliphs were wrested from them, and the authority of the race 
that but a few centuries before had seemed on the point of be- 
coming supreme throughout the world, was once more virtually 
confined to the Arabian peninsula. 

The Christians were not long in realizing that power had fallen 
into new hands. They were insulted and persecuted in every way. 
The churches in Jerusalem were destroyed or turned into stables. 
The aged patriarch of the city, after having been subjected to 
every indignity, was cast into a dungeon. Pilgrims still continued 
to flock to the holy places, but the tales of their woes and suffer- 
ings attested with what danger the undertaking was now attended. 

The Christians of Europe were wrought to indignation by these 
accounts of the insults heaped upon the holy places, and were 
moved to tears by the recitals of the personal sufferings of the pil- 
grims themselves. If it were a meritorious thing to make a pil- 
grimage to the Holy Sepulchre, much more would it be a pious 
act to rescue the sacred spot from the profanation of infidels. 
This was the conviction that changed the pilgrim into a warrior, — 
this the sentiment that for two centuries and more stirred the 
Christian world to its profoundest depths, and cast the population 
of Europe in wave after wave upon Asia. 

Although this religious feeling was the principal cause of the 
Crusades, there were other concurring causes which must not be 



PREACHING OF PETER THE HERMIT 183 

overlooked. Thus there was what Guizot calls the social incite- 
ment — the restless, adventurous spirit of the Teutonic peoples of 
Europe, who had not as yet outgrown their barbarian instincts. 
The feudal knights and lords, just now animated by the rising 
spirit of chivalry, were very ready to enlist in an undertaking 
so consonant with their martial feelings and their new vows of 
knighthood. 

But besides these two causes — religious zeal, and the love of 
war and adventure — there were others not so creditable to human 
nature. Thus, some of the Italian cities entered into the under- 
takings from commercial or political motives ; many knights, 
princes, and even kings headed the expeditions with the view of 
establishing kingdoms in the East from lands wrested from the 
infidels ; while vast multitudes of the baser sort joined them in 
order to secure immunity from debt and crime ; for, as we shall 
see, the person and property of the crusader were taken under the 
special protection of the Church. 

Yet notwithstanding that so many unworthy motives animated 
vast numbers of those engaging in the Crusades, we shall not be 
wrong in thinking that it was the conviction that the enterprise 
of rescuing the sacred places was a holy one which was the 
main motive power, in the absence of which all the other causes 
enumerated would have proved wholly inadequate either to set 
in motion or to keep in motion these remarkable and long-con- 
tinued expeditions. 

Preaching of Peter the Hermit. — The immediate cause of the 
First Crusade was the preaching of Peter the Hermit, a native of 
Picardy in France. The fasts, austerities, and holy vigils of a soli- 
tary life had so inflamed and disordered the imagination of the 
monk, that he persuaded himself he was the subject of visions and 
revelations. He made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where his 
zeal was warmed to a glowing fervor by a view of the places and 
scenes which had been consecrated by the sufferings and death of 
the Son of God. His sympathy and indignation were equally 
stirred by sight of the cruelties to which the native and pilgrim 



1S4 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Christians were subjected by the Mohammedan conquerors, and 
his holy resentment burned to revenge the profanations of the 
sacred places by these insolent unbelievers. He mingled his tears 
with those of the venerable Simeon, the patriarch of Jerusalem ; 
and as the aged bishop lamented the calamities of the Holy City, 
and showed how vain it was to look for succor from the Greek 
emperor of Constantinople, — himself a prisoner in his own capi- 
tal, — all the zeal and ardor of the fanatic flamed up in the soul of 
the Hermit, and he vowed that he would rouse the princes and 
warriors of the West for the deliverance of the holy places. 

Bearing letters from the patriarch, calling upon the Christians of 
Europe to arm for the rescue of their brethren in Asia, Peter, after 
visiting Constantinople, hastened to Rome, and at the feet of Pope 
Urban the Second, begged to be commissioned to rouse the West 
to avenge the desecration of the Ploly City. Urban commended 
warmly the zeal of the Hermit, and with many promises of aid 
sent him forth to stir up the people to engage in the holy 
undertaking. % 

The Hermit traversed all Italy and France, addressing every- 
where, in the church, in the street, and in the open field, the 
crowds that flocked about him, moving all hearts with sympathy 
or firing them with indignation, as he recited the sufferings of 
their brethren at the hands of the infidels, or pictured the pro- 
fanation of the holy places, polluted by the presence and insults of 
the unbelievers. The people looked upon the monk, clothed in 
the coarse raiment of an anchorite, as a messenger from heaven, 
and even venerated the ass upon which he rode. His wild and 
fervid eloquence alternately melted his auditors to tears, or lifted 
them into transports of enthusiasm. 

The Councils of Placentia and Clermont. — While Peter the 
Hermit had been arousing the warriors of the West, the Turks had 
been making constant advances in the East, and were now threat- 
ening Constantinople itself. The Emperor Alexius Comnenus sent 
urgent letters to the Pope, asking for aid against the infidels, rep- 
resenting that, unless assistance were extended immediately, the 



THE COUNCILS OE PLACENTIA AND CLERMONT. 185 

capital with all its holy relics must soon fall into the hands of the 
barbarians. 

Urban called a great council of the Church at Placentia in Italy 
to consider the appeal (1095). It was a vast and enthusiastic 
assembly, for the eloquence of the Hermit had stirred all Europe. 
But threatening as were the dangers that impended above the 
sister Church in the East, and strong as were the feelings of devo- 
tion and resentment that had been enkindled by the preaching of 
Peter, so many other and discordant interests were represented by 
the different commissioners to the council, that it was impossible 
to concert any measure looking towards the deliverance of the 
Eastern Church, or the recovery of Jerusalem. 

Later in the same year a new council was convened at Cler- 
mont in France, Urban purposely fixing the place of meeting 
among the warm-tempered and martial Franks. Archbishops and 
bishops, nobles, princes, and embassadors from every corner of 
Europe crowded to the council. The town of Clermont could 
not hold the immense multitudes, which overflowed all the sur- 
rounding fields. 

After the council had considered some minor matters, the ques- 
tion which was agitating all hearts was brought before it. Peter 
the Hermit was present, and fired the inflammable masses before 
him with the fervor of his fiery eloquence. As he pictured the 
miseries of the Christians of Jerusalem, his own sobs and groans 
were answered by those of his sympathetic hearers. In turn he 
aroused every emotion — pity, horror, indignation, revenge — that 
may stir the human heart. 

When Peter had finished speaking, Pope Urban arose, and 
added fresh fuel to the flames that already were burning so fiercely. 
He was naturally an eloquent speaker, so that the man, the cause, 
and the occasion all conspired to achieve one of the greatest tri- 
umphs of human oratory. He pictured the humiliation and misery 
of the provinces of Asia ; the profanation of the places made sacred 
by the presence and footsteps of the Son of God ; and then he 
detailed the conquests of the Turks, until now, with all Asia Minor 



186 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

in their possession, they were threatening Europe from the shores 
of the Hellespont. 

Then addressing the Franks, in whose devotion and martial 
spirit he placed his chief reliance, the eloquent pontiff exclaimed : 
" Nation, beloved of God, it is in your courage that the Christian 
Church has placed its hope ; it is because I am well acquainted 
with your piety and your bravery, that I have crossed the Alps, 
and am come to preach the word of God in these countries. You 
have not forgotten that the land you inhabit has been invaded by 
the Saracens, and that but for the exploits of Charles Martel and 
Charlemagne, France would have received the laws of Mohammed. 
Recall, without ceasing, to your minds the danger and glory of 
your fathers ; led by heroes whose names should never die, they 
delivered your country, they saved the West from shameful slavery. 
More noble triumphs await you, under the guidance of the God 
of armies : you will deliver Europe and Asia ; you will save the 
city of Jesus Christ, — that Jerusalem which was chosen by the 
Lord, and from whence the Law is come to us." x 

Then reproving his listeners for the readiness with which they 
engaged in war against one another, the impassioned speaker broke 
forth again : "If you must have blood, bathe your hands in the 
blood of infidels. I speak to you with harshness, because my min- 
istry obliges me to do so ; soldiers of Hell, become soldiers of the 
living God ! When Jesus Christ summons you to his defense, let 
no base affection detain you in your homes : see nothing but the 
shame and evils of the Christians ; listen to nothing but the groans 
of Jerusalem, and remember well what the Lord has said to you : 
He who loves his father and his mother more than me is not 
worthy of me j whoever will abandon his house, or his father, or 
his mother, or his wife, or his children, or his inheritance, for the 
sake of my name, shall be recompensed a hundred-fold, and 
possess life eternal." 

Here the enthusiasm of the vast assembly burst through every 
restraint. With one voice they cried, Dien le volt ! Dien le volt I 
1 Michaud's History of the Crusades, Vol. I. p. 49. 



MUSTERING OF THE CRUSADERS. 187 

"It is the will of God ! It is the will of God ! " "These words 
are indeed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit," exclaimed Urban. 
"They shall be your battle-cry as you go forth to the holy war." 
He then uplifted a cross, and added, " This is the symbol of your 
salvation ; wear it upon your breasts or shoulders, as a pledge of 
your sacred engagement." 

Thousands immediately affixed the cross to their garments, 1 
and with solemn vows engaged to fight, and, if need be, shed their 
blood, in defense of the Holy Sepulchre. The fifteenth clay of 
August of the following year was set for the departure of the 
expedition. 

Thus was inaugurated by popular acclamation, and with the 
blessing of the Holy See, the First Crusade, and thus was set in 
motion those mighty movements which were destined to keep the 
population of all Europe stirred to its profoundest depths for more 
than two centuries. 

II. The First Crusade (i 096-1 099). 

Mustering of the Crusaders. — All Christian Europe — Italy, 
Northern Spain, Germany, France, England, and even the remote 
lands of Norway and Sweden, now rang with the cry, " He who 
will not take up his cross and come with me, is not worthy of 
me." 

The contagion of enthusiasm seized all classes. No order or 
condition of life was exempt ; for while the religious feelings of the 
age had been specially appealed to, all the various sentiments of 
ambition, chivalry, love of license, had also been skilfully enlisted 
on the side of the undertaking. The council of Clermont had 
declared Europe to be in a state of peace, and pronounced 
anathemas against any one who should invade the possessions of a 
prince engaged in the holy war. By further edicts of the assembly, 
the debtor was released from meeting his obligations while a soldier 
of the Cross, and during this period the interest on his debt was to 

1 Hence the name Crilsade given to the Holy Wars, from Old French crois, 



188 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OE REVIVAL. 

cease ; and the criminal, as soon as he assumed the badge of the 
crusader, was by that act instantly absolved from all his sins of 
whatever nature. 

Under such inducements princes and nobles, bishops and priests, 
monks and anchorites, saints and sinners, rich and poor, hastened 
to enroll themselves beneath the consecrated banner. "Europe," 
says Michaud, " appeared to be a land of exile, which every one 
was eager to quit." Never before had Europe been stirred by 
such a common and intense enthusiasm ; nor have all the centuries 
since the close of the Crusades witnessed another such universal 
and profound movement among the peoples of that continent. 

With the public imagination so inflamed, prodigies of course 
were not wanting to further heighten the flame of ardor and confirm 
the resolution of the faithful. Signs were seen in the heavens, — 
gathering armies and flying hosts of men ; on earth, the graves were 
opened, and saints and martyrs appeared among the living. 

During all the winter of 1095-6 the stir of preparation might 
have been seen on every hand. Those who had assumed the 
Cross were busy finding purchasers for their property, which was 
often sold for the merest fraction of its real value. To the various 
towns appointed as rallying places the crusaders hastened singly 
and in bands, on horse and on foot. In the motley throngs that 
crowded the places of rendezvous were to be seen every manner of 
dress and of arms, — the habit of the monk and the stole of the 
bishop, the battle-ax of the mailed knight and the pike of the 
common soldier. But the same delirium of enthusiasm animated 
every breast, and the vast camps resounded day and night with the 
chants and songs of the Christian hosts. 

The Vanguard. — Before the regular armies of the crusaders 
were ready to move, those who had gathered about Peter the 
Hermit, becoming impatient of delay, urged him to place himself 
at their head and lead them at once to the Holy Land. Blinded 
to the commonest dictates of prudence by his fanatic zeal, he 
assumed the leadership of the mixed multitudes, and, followed by 
a throng of about 80,000 persons, among whom were many women 



THE VANGUARD. 189 

and children, set out for Constantinople by the overland route 
through Germany and Hungary. In order that means of subsist- 
ence might be more easily secured, the army was divided into two 
bands, one of which was led by an " impecunious knight," called 
Walter the Penniless, and the other by the Hermit in person. It 
is asserted that in both companies there were only eight mounted 
warriors. 

All through Germany the crusaders were kindly received, and 
their wants freely supplied. But as soon as they entered the terri- 
tories of the Hungarians and Bulgarians their troubles began. 
These people had been converted to Christianity, but they did not 
share in the zeal that animated their brethren of the West of 
Europe. Not receiving all the provisions that their needs required, 
the crusaders under Walter resorted to violence to relieve their 
wants. Naturally the semi-Christian barbarians flew to arms, and 
avenged themselves by a slaughter of more than a hundred of the 
marauders. Taught by this chastisement to respect more care- 
fully the rights of a martial people, the pilgrims journeyed on with- 
out any more serious losses than such as naturally resulted from 
the hardships and casualties of so arduous a march, and were at 
last gladdened by the sight of the towers of Constantinople. 

The division led by Peter was far more unfortunate. The zeal- 
ous Hermit could preach a Crusade, but his imprudent zeal dis- 
qualified him for leading one. Coming upon some of the 
mutilated bodies of the followers of Walter, he ordered a general 
massacre of the inhabitants of the town at whose gates the bodies 
were exposed. From this on the march of the crusaders was 
harassed by the incensed natives. Thousands of them fell in 
battle, and thousands more perished miserably of hunger and 
exposure. Upon entering the territory of Thrace, the despondent 
crusaders were met by messengers from Alexius, Emperor of the 
East, who bore messages of encouragement and friendship. 
Finally, haggard and in rags, they arrived beneath the walls of the 
capital, and there with tears of joy embraced their brethren of 
the army of Walter, who had been awaiting their coming. 



190 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Almost daily, as the united armies lay in front of Constantinople, 
their number was swollen by the arrival of fresh bands, who had 
followed in their footsteps. These new companies, made up of 
thieves, adventurers, and fanatics of all sorts, had set out on their 
journey without leaders or provisions, firmly believing that He 
whose cause they had undertaken would lead them as He led the 
Israelites of old, and feed them with manna from heaven. The 
excesses of these marauders in the countries through which they 
passed caused their ranks to be mercilessly thinned by the out- 
raged natives, who looked upon them as brigands. The Hermit's 
army was further augmented by adventurers from the various cities 
of Southern Europe, who made their way to Constantinople by 
water. 

By these various additions the motley crowd — it cannot prop- 
erly be called an army — under the command of the Hermit came 
to number about one hundred thousand men. Discipline among 
them was unknown ; and they soon began to commit depredations 
and outrages in the suburbs of the capital. Alexius became 
alarmed, and began to think, not without reason, that he had 
more to fear from the friends he had summoned to his aid than 
from his enemies the Turks. 

To rid himself of his troublesome friends he provided boats, and 
helped to ferry them across the Bosphorus. Once in Asia, the 
crusaders gave full rein to their barbarian appetites and instincts, 
and pillaged and outraged indiscriminately friend and foe. Re- 
fusing to listen to the advice of either Peter or Walter, they 
demanded that the former should lead them against the city of 
Nice, which place, as we have already learned, had been made 
the capital of the Turkish dynasty. While upon the march to the 
city, they were surprised by the Turks, and all of the vast host 
were slaughtered, save a few thousand who found an asylum within 
the walls of an old castle. 1 

1 Peter was not in the battle. It seems that, finding he possessed no con- 
trol over the fanatical rabble he had gathered, he returned to Constantinople. 
There "he declaimed against their indocility and pride, and beheld in them 



MARCH OF THE MAIN BODY. 191 

Thus perished the forlorn hope of the First Crusade. Three 
hundred thousand men had set out from the West ; probably two 
thirds of these perished before reaching Constantinople ; the only 
memorial to be seen in after years of those that crossed the Bos- 
phorus was a great pyramid of bones on the plains of Nice, — 
" a deplorable monument to point out to other crusaders the road 
to the Holy Land." 

March of the Main Body. — While the fanatical multitudes 
that followed Peter and Walter were rushing madly forward to their 
own destruction, and by their excesses not only exasperating the 
Hungarians and Bulgarians, and prejudicing the Greeks of the 
Eastern Empire against the entire crusading movement, but also 
exciting the contempt of their enemies, the Turks, there were 
gathering in the West disciplined armies composed of men worthy 
to be champions of the holy cause they had espoused. They 
were commanded by knights of heroic and chivalrous spirit, who 
were soon to teach the Turks that the true warriors of the West 
were very different men from those they had so recently and con- 
temptuously slaughtered on the plains of Bithynia. 

Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine ; his brothers, Baldwin 
and Eustace ; Robert II., Duke of Normandy ; Raymond of Tou- 
louse ; Bohemond, Prince of Toronto ; and his nephew Tancred, 
" the mirror of knighthood," were the most noted of the leaders 
of the different divisions of the army. The expedition numbered 
about 700,000 men, of whom fully 100,000 were mailed knights. 

The zeal and devotion of the Christian people of Western 
Europe were wonderfully exhibited in the sacrifices made in raising 
and equipping this splendid army for the execution of their pious 
undertaking. Wealthy nobles had exchanged their paternal estates 
for the equipment of themselves and their followers. Robert of 
Normandy had mortgaged his domains to his brother William, 
king of England. The contributions of charity had helped to fit 
out those too poor to meet the expense of their arms. 

nothing but brigands, whom God had deemed unworthy to contemplate or 
adore the tomb of his Son." — MiCHAUD. 



192 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

• As the country through which they were to pass could not afford 
provisions or forage for the whole body of crusaders, it was ar- 
ranged that they should march in divisions by different routes, and 
re-assemble at Constantinople. Godfrey of Bouillon, at the head 
of 90,000 men, marched directly through Germany and Hungary. 
Raymond of Toulouse led 100,000 men by a more southerly route 
through Dalmatia. Other companies crossed the Alps, and em- 
barked with the warriors of Italy from the various ports of the 
peninsula. The incidents of the march or voyage of the various 
bands were varied and often romantic, but still more frequently 
gloomy and harassing. All these matters we must pass now, and 
content ourselves with watching the remustering of the various 
companies in front of the gates of Constantinople. 

Alexius had had his fears awakened by the marauding bands of 
the Hermit. These fears now mounted into real alarm when he 
learned the immense number of the armies that had appointed 
his capital as their rendezvous. He wanted help, but not so 
much. He had neither wished nor thought that his defenders 
would come in such enormous crowds as to endanger his empire. 

While striving to conceal his fears, the Emperor secretly did 
everything in his power to impede and annoy the march of his 
deliverers. Upon the arrival of the crusaders at Constantinople, 
he tried to persuade their leaders to swear fealty to him as their 
overlord. This they at first refused to do ; but finally, by means 
of flattery and bribes, he induced all the princes save Tancred to 
pay him homage. But the homage thus paid was rather in form 
than spirit, for the hardy warriors of the West held the effeminate 
Greeks in ill-concealed contempt. x\lexius did all in his power to 
hasten the crusaders' passage of the Bosphorus, and breathed 
freely only after his deliverers were all on the opposite side of 
the straits. 

The Capture of Nice (1097) . — The army of Latin warriors that 
mustered on the plains of Bithynia was the most formidable host 
that Europe had ever sent against Asia, — such an army, indeed, 
as all the centuries since have never seen precipitated by the West 



THE CAPTURE OE NICE. 193 

upon the East. Besides the 100,000 mounted warriors and the 
600,000 foot-soldiers, there was a large number of women and 
children composing the families of the chiefs, and a great multi- 
tude of servants and attendants, which swelled the aggregate to 
enormous figures. Gibbon, even with the vast armaments of 
Xerxes in mind, is inclined to believe that " a larger number has 
never been contained within the lines of a single camp." One 
cannot help contrasting the meagre achievements of this vast host 
with the splendid results effected by Alexander with the little band 
of 35,000 with which he crossed the Hellespont fourteen hundred 
years before. 

The crusaders advanced across the plains of Bithynia, which 
were whitened with the bones of their brethren who had preceded 
them, to the siege of the Turkish capital, Nice. Not only was 
the city defended by heavy walls and a strong garrison, but a 
supporting army of 100,00.0 barbarians lay in its immediate 
neighborhood. 

In their encounter with these outside forces, as well as in their 
assaults upon the walls of the city itself, the crusaders exhibited 
all that intrepid valor that has given such an heroic and even 
romantic cast to the records of the Holy Wars. But it must be 
added that they also displayed a ferocity of spirit but little in 
keeping with the nature of their pious undertaking. Having slain 
a thousand Turks, the Christians cut off their heads, and by means 
of their catapults hurled them over the ramparts into the city. 
The Turks retaliated by stripping the prisoners in their hands, and 
shooting them from their engines into the Christian camp. 

Finally, as soon as it became evident that the capital could 
withstand the assaults of the besiegers but a few days longer, Alex- 
ius sent secret emissaries into the city to persuade the Turkish 
garrison to surrender to the Greeks rather than to the Latins, 
assuring them protection against the violence of his rough allies. 
They did this ; and just at the moment when the crusaders were 
about to make a final assault upon the city, and were anticipating 
the license of its sack and pillage, the imperial flag was raised 



194 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

upon its walls. The Latins were naturally enraged at the dupli- 
city and ingratitude of the Emperor. " They had beaten the 
fruit from the tree, but it had fallen into the hands of Alexius." 
Bound by the oaths of fealty which they had just taken, the chiefs, 
however, could do nothing to revenge the meanness of their 
recently acknowledged suzerain. 

We shall need to bear in mind the mutual distrust and hatred 
engendered between the Latins and the Greeks by the lawless 
acts of the followers of Peter the Hermit, and by the selfish and 
treacherous conduct of Alexius, in order to understand certain 
events to which our attention will soon be called. 

March across Asia Minor. — From the city of Nice the crusa- 
ders, marching in two divisions on account of scarcity of food and 
forage, set out for Syria. They were harassed by the Turks, who, 
at a place called Dorylseum, in Phrygia, fell upon and nearly over- 
whelmed one of the columns before the other could render assist- 
ance. But the prowess of the Christian knights at last achieved a 
complete victory over the Turkish hordes. 

After this defeat the barbarians did not risk another encounter, 
but resorted to desolating the country in front of the Latin army. 
So thoroughly was the work done, that the crusaders marched for 
five hundred miles through a land deserted alike by friend and 
foe, and which yielded scarcely anything for themselves or their 
animals. Almost all their horses died, and their own ranks were 
terribly thinned. The line of their march between Nice and An- 
tioch, in Northern Syria, was marked by the bones of nearly one 
half the mighty host that had mustered on the plains of Bithynia. 

The Capture of Antioch. — Arriving at Antioch, at this time 
one of the most populous cities of the East, the crusaders at once 
invested the place. After a siege of seven months, the city was 
treacherously surrendered into their hands by a Greek traitor who 
had gained the confidence of the Turkish commander, and been 
given the defense of an important portion of the walls (1098). 

The Pious Fraud. — Scarcely were the Christians in possession 
of the city, before they were themselves besieged by an immense 



THE ORDEAL OF BARTHELEMY. 195 

army, two hundred thousand strong, gathered from almost all the 
Moslem countries of Asia. They were quite soon reduced to the 
very last extremity of starvation and despair. Ready to die, they 
cursed God for deserting them, when they had given up all for his 
holy cause : " If thou art still an all-powerful God," they cried 
piteously, " what has become of thy justice ? Are we not thy chil- 
dren, are we not thy soldiers ? . . . If thou abandon those who fight 
for thee, who will dare henceforth to range themselves under thy 
sacred banners ? " — Michaud. 

A pious fraud was all that delivered the city from the power of 
the Mussulman host. A priest, Barthelemy by name, gave out that 
it had been revealed to him that, buried beneath the altar of one 
of the churches, would be found the lance that pierced the side 
of the Saviour, which would give the Christians certain victory 
over their enemies. Upon search, the spear-head was found, and 
instantly, at sight of the holy relic, an uncontrollable enthusiasm 
thrilled the breasts of the crusaders. They seized their arms, and 
with the holy lance at their head as their standard, rushed from 
the gates of the city, and falling upon the enemy with a fury noth- 
ing could withstand, scattered the enormous host with terrific 
slaughter. 

The camp of the infidels, which became a spoil, exhibited furni- 
ture and apparel of such magnificence as the rude Frankish war- 
riors had never seen before. Among the spoils was the tent of 
the prince of Mosul, glittering with costly gems. It was made to 
represent a city with walls and towers, and was capable of holding 
two thousand people. This famous trophy was sent to Italy as a 
specimen of the magnificence and luxury of the East. 

The Ordeal of Barthelemy. — Having purified the churches of 
Antioch, — for they had been profaned by having been used as 
mosques by the Turks, — and reestablished the worship of the 
Cross in that city, where the proselytes of the faith had first been 
called Christians, the crusaders, animated with new zeal by the 
marvelous victory granted to their arms through the special favor, 
as they believed, of Heaven, demanded to be led at once to the 



196 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

capture of Jerusalem. The terror and panic which their defeat 
had inspired in the Mussulmans would have rendered the city at 
this moment an easy prize. 

But, unfortunately, many of the Christian leaders were influenced 
by selfish and ambitious motives, and, neglectful of their vows, 
allowed almost a year to pass while they were engaged in under- 
takings against the different cities around, with the object of 
making conquests that would enable them to set up little feudal 
kingdoms for themselves. 

Meanwhile, various differences among the body of crusaders 
resulted in the formation of bitter factions. Thus the miracles and 
visions constantly reported by the more superstitious and credu- 
lous were discredited and denied by others, either from jealousy 
or because they thought it a shame that such deceptions should 
be tolerated. Barthelemy was accused of falsehood in the matter 
of the holy lance. He proposed to submit to the judgment of 
fire. Accordingly two great fires were built upon the plain, so close 
together that the flames mingled. When all was ready, the priests 
advanced, bearing the holy relic. A brother priest then read the 
usual appeal : " If this man has seen Jesus Christ face to face, and 
if the apostle Andrew did reveal the divine lance to him, may he 
pass safe and sound through the flames ; but if, on the contrary, 
he is guilty of falsehood, may he be burnt, together with the lance 
which he bears in his hand." 

Then Barthelemy, after solemnly declaring that all he had told 
was true, rushed between the flames. He passed through, but was 
so badly burned that he lived only a little while after the ordeal. 
This judgment of Heaven was considered by most as a final settle- 
ment of the dispute, and thereafter the holy spear ceased to be 
reverenced. 

We have taken space to narrate the history of this miraculous 
lance, because, better than anything else, it illustrates the super- 
stitions, the credulity, and the customs of the men who were 
engaged in the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. 

The Capture of Jerusalem. — Whilst the crusaders were wasting 



THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM. 197 

their time in Northern Syria, the Egyptian Caliph, taking advantage 
of the panic which the victory of the Christians had produced 
among the Turks, had recaptured Jerusalem. When the Latin 
warriors, finally mindful of their vows, recommenced their march 
for the Holy City, he sent an embassy to them, proposing that they 
join their forces in a united war against the Turks. The crusaders 
replied that their oaths bound them to deliver the Holy Sepulchre 
from the hands of all infidels, Saracens as well as Turks, and to 
establish in the birthplace of their religion a Christian sovereignty ; 
and in reply to his promises that all unarmed Christians should 
have free access to the holy places, they recalled to the mind of 
the Caliph that one of the rulers (Hakem) of his own house had 
even surpassed the Turks in the atrocities perpetrated upon 
Christian pilgrims. 

So the army of deliverers pressed on towards Jerusalem. As they 
neared the object of all their toils and sufferings, every discord 
was hushed in their ranks, and the enthusiasm that had animated 
them in the first days of their enterprise again inflamed every 
heart. Scarcely would they take needed repose, but frequently 
continued their march through the night. Finally, in the first light 
of a June morning, 1099, as their columns gained the brow of a 
hill, the walls and towers of the Holy City burst upon their view. 
A perfect delirium of joy seized the crusaders. The cry " Jeru- 
salem ! Jerusalem ! " ran through their ranks. They embraced 
one another with tears of joy, and even embraced and kissed the 
ground on which they stood. As they pressed on, they took off 
their shoes, and marched with uncovered head and bare feet, sing- 
ing the words of the prophet : " Jerusalem, lift up thine eyes, and 
behold the liberator who comes to break thy chains." 

The Saracens had taken every precaution to secure the city 
against attack. A strong army of forty thousand men had been 
thrown within its walls. Its defences had been strengthened, and 
all the surrounding country laid waste, even the springs of water 
having been poisoned, that there might be nothing for the subsist- 
ence of a besieging army. But the Christians at once advanced, 



198 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

and laid siege to the place. Timber needed for the construction 
of assaulting engines was brought from a distance of twenty or 
thirty miles. A Genoese fleet which at this moment landed at 
Jaffa furnished additional material and instruments, besides skilled 
workmen. 

The first assault made by the Christians was repulsed. But the 
appearance of a mysterious horseman on the Mount of Olives led 
the crusaders to believe that St. George had come to lead them to 
victory ; and with a reckless enthusiasm that struck dismay into 
the hearts of the Moslems, the Christians again threw themselves 
against the walls of the city. Nothing could withstand their 
terrific onset. The ramparts were swept of their defenders, and 
the city was in the hands of the crusaders (1099). 

A terrible slaughter of the infidels now took place. In the very 
midst of the massacre the example of one of their leaders caused 
the crusaders to pause in their terrible work, to weep and pray at 
the Holy Sepulchre. This transport of pious enthusiasm over, 
they were again seized with the delirium of mad vengeance and 
slaughter. For seven days the carnage went on, at the end of 
which time scarcely any of the Moslem faith were left alive. The 
Christians took possession of the houses and property of the infi- 
dels, each soldier having a right to that which he had first seized 
and placed his mark upon. The poorest crusader suddenly found 
himself a householder and surrounded with luxury. 

Thus was Jerusalem in the course of a few days converted from 
a Moslem capital into a Christian city, with a population of Latin 
warriors gathered from the most remote countries of the West. 

Peter the Hermit at Jerusalem. — In the narratives of the 
Latin writers Peter the Hermit once more appears to our view. 
He entered Jerusalem with the army of deliverers. It was five 
years since he had left the native Christians of the city with 
the promise that he would arouse for their succor the warriors of 
the West. They now saw the remarkable fulfilment of that vow. 
Never before had a city been delivered from the hands of its ene- 
mies by such a miracle of enthusiasm — by such incredible ex- 



FOUNDING OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM. 199 

ploits, by such terrible sacrifices and sufferings. Both the rescued 
and the rescuers fell at the feet of the holy hermit, and with 
tears of joy and gratitude thanked God for the wonderful things 
He had wrought through his instrumentality. 

Founding of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. — No sooner 
was Jerusalem in the hands of the crusaders than they set them- 
selves to the task of organizing a government for the city and 
country they had conquered. In this matter they displayed such 
deliberation and wisdom as we should hardly expect in them, after 
the exhibition that we have witnessed of their fanaticism and 
imprudent zeal. 

The government which they established was a sort of feudal 
league, known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. At its head 
was placed Godfrey of Bouillon, the most valiant and devoted of 
the crusader knights. The prince refused the title and vestments 
of royalty, declaring that he would never wear a crown of gold in 
the city where his Lord and Master had worn a crown of thorns. 
The only title he would accept was that of " Defender of the 
Holy Sepulchre." 

This little Latin kingdom, established by such labors and sacri- 
fices, embraced about a score of cities scattered throughout a 
region whose limits would very nearly coincide with the boun- 
daries of ancient Palestine. As a reward for their valor, Tancred 
and others of the chiefs of the crusaders received the government 
of different towns and castles. Many, also, of the Latin ecclesi- 
astics who had accompanied the army were recompensed for 
their sufferings and devotion, at the expense of the Greek priests. 

The fortunes of this little Latin kingdom will appear as we pro- 
ceed with the recital of the Holy Wars. 

Close of the First Crusade. — Scarcely had the crusaders or- 
ganized the government of this little principality before they were 
informed of the advance of an immense army, collected from 
almost every part of the Mohammedan world, to avenge the 
slaughter of their brethren in the taking of Jerusalem. Without 
awaiting their near approach, the Christians, who now could muster 



200 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

not more than twenty thousand effective soldiers, marched out of 
the city, and met the Moslem host on the plains of Ascalon. Here 
again was performed the miracle of faith and enthusiasm. By 
the furious charge of that little handful of Christian knights, the 
Mohammedan hosts were scattered like chaff before the wind. 

This victory of Ascalon, which was perhaps the most wonderful 
achievement of the Latin warriors, marks the last great battle of 
the First Crusade. Many of the crusaders, considering their vows 
to deliver the Holy City as fulfilled, now set out on their return to 
their homes ; some making their way back by sea, and some 
by land. Godfrey, Tancred, and a few hundred other knights, 
were all that stayed behind to maintain the conquests that had been 
made, and to act as guardians of the Holy Sepulchre. Among 
those who returned was Peter the Hermit, who retired to the soli- 
tude of a monastery in France, where he ended his days, faithful 
to his religious vows. 

The arrival of the returning crusaders in their native countries, 
and their stories of the lands they had seen, of the exploits they 
had performed, of rich fiefs won in a day by knightly valor, again 
stirred all the West with the same delirium of enthusiasm that had 
thrilled it at the preaching of the Hermit. And now were repeated 
the scenes that marked the beginning of the Crusade. Great 
multitudes flocked to the standard of the Cross, and without 
proper organization or leadership, pushed across Europe to Con- 
stantinople. From that capital they set out in three bands on their 
march across Asia Minor. Each of these was in turn almost 
annihilated by the Turks, and of the 200,000 estimated to have 
made up the companies, only a few thousand ever found their way 
back to Europe. This ill-starred expedition marks the end of 
the First Crusade. It is estimated that during its progress the 
West lost more than one million of its warriors. 

III. The Second Crusade (114 7- 11 49). 

Condition of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. — There was 
an interval of about half a century between the First and the 



THE THREE MILITARY AND RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 201 

Second Crusade, which latter was inspired by the threatened 
destruction of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. 

After the return of the main body of the crusaders, the position 
of Godfrey and his companion knights was a very critical one. 
Upon every side the little Christian state was pressed by watchful 
and vindictive Moslem foes. Under Godfrey and his successors, 
Baldwin I. and Baldwin II., the crusader knights were constantly 
busied in defending the cities of their domains against the attacks 
of the Saracens and Turks, or in reducing to obedience the places 
still held by the enemy. Tiberias, Caesarea, Ptolemais, Ascalon, 
Berytus, Sidon, Tyre, and many other places were wrenched from 
the Mohammedans, and the limits of the Christian kingdom thus 
extended in every direction. 

With their zeal inflamed by daily visions and miracles, the 
Frankish knights performed prodigies of valor that seem to 
belong rather to the recitals of romance than to the sober nar- 
rations of history. "Armed," as an old writer says, "by faith 
within and steel without," they seemed to bear charmed lives. 
Constantly they were engaged in battle with the Turks and Arabs, 
flying by day and by night to the defence of the opposite frontiers 
of the little kingdom. A few hundred Franks often scattered tens 
of thousands of the enemy ; the mail-clad knights, indeed, scarcely 
ever failing, no matter what the odds, to bear down and override 
everything that opposed itself to the fury of their onset. 

Origin of the Three Military and Religious Orders. — It was 
about this time that the three famous religious military orders, 
known as the Hospitalers, the Templars, and the Teutonic Knights, 
were formed. 

The Hospitalers, or Knights of St. John, took their name from 
the fact that the organization was first formed among the monks 
of the Hospital of St. John, at Jerusalem ; while the Templars, or 
Knights of the Temple, were so called on account of one of the 
buildings of the brotherhood occupying the site of Solomon's 
Temple. The objects of both orders were the care of the sick 
and wounded crusaders, the entertainment of Christian pilgrims, 



202 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

the guarding of the holy places, and ceaseless battling for the 
Cross. In the case of the Hospitalers, it was monks who added to 
their ordinary monastic vows those of Knighthood ; and in the case 
of the Templars, it was knights who added to their military vows 
those of religion. 

These fraternities soon acquired a military fame that was spread 
throughout the Christian world. They were joined by many of 
the most illustrious knights of the West, and through the gifts of 
the pious acquired great wealth, and became possessed of numer- 
ous foundations in Europe as well as in Asia. 

A little later (in 1189) the order of the Teutonic Knights had 
its origin in a charitable association of philanthropic Germans, the 
immediate object of which was the relief of the sick and wounded 
German warriors in the trenches before Acre, which place the 
Christians were then besieging. The members of the society were 
soon raised by the German Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, to the 
order of Knighthood, and then the fraternity began its remarkable 
military career as the champion of Christianity, first against the 
infidels of Asia, and afterwards against the pagans of Northern 
Europe. 

The Fall of Edessa. — After the death of Godfrey and the first 
two Baldwins, the little Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was weak- 
ened by dissensions among the knights and barons, and its assail- 
ants became more successful in their attacks upon it. Finally, in 
the year 1146; the city of Edessa was taken by the Turks, and the 
entire population slaughtered, or sold into slavery. This city had 
always been looked upon as the bulwark of the Latin Kingdom on 
the side towards Mesopotamia. Its fall not only carried terror 
and dismay through all the cities of Palestine, but threw the entire 
West into a state of the greatest apprehension and alarm, lest the 
little Christian state, established at such cost of tears and suffering, 
should be completely overwhelmed, and all the holy places again 
fall into the hands of the infidels. 

Preaching of St. Bernard. — The scenes that marked the open- 
ing of the First Crusade were now repeated in all the countries of 



TREACHERY OF THE GREEK EMPEROR. 203 

the West. St. Bernard, an eloquent monk, was the second Peter 
the Hermit, who went everywhere, arousing the warriors of the 
Cross to the defense of the birthplace of their religion. The 
contagion of the holy enthusiasm seized not alone barons, knights, 
and the common people, which classes alone participated in the 
First Crusade, but kings and emperors were now infected with the 
sacred frenzy. Conrad III., Emperor of Germany, was persuaded 
to leave the affairs of his distracted empire in the hands of God, 
and consecrate himself to the defense of the sepulchre of Christ. 
Louis VII., king of France, was led to undertake the crusade 
through remorse for an act of great cruelty that he had perpetrated 
upon some of his revolted subjects. 

The deed which so preyed upon the mind of Louis was the 
burning of thirteen hundred people in a church, whither they had 
fled for refuge. St. Bernard had awakened the conscience and 
fears of the guilty king, by threatening him with the curse of the 
Church and all the terrors of Hell. The call for aid coming at 
just this time from the Christians of the East, the king resolved to 
lead an expedition to their relief, hoping thus to wipe the stain of 
his awful guilt from his soul. 

The expenses of the new crusade were met by the gifts of the 
pious, by the testaments of the dying, — who often left their entire 
estates to be devoted to the prosecution of the Holy Wars, — by 
the robbery of the Jews, by the enormous contributions of the 
churches and various religious houses, and by taxes levied upon 
all classes. Many of the barons and knights, following the ex- 
ample of the first crusaders, sold or mortgaged their lands to raise 
money to equip themselves and their vassals. 

Treachery of the Greek Emperor. — In the spring of 1147, 
Louis, attended by his queen Eleanor and many other gentle 
ladies equipped as knights, set out at the head of an army of 
100,000 for Constantinople, where he was to join the German 
Emperor and the other army of crusaders. The throne of the 
Eastern Empire was at this time held by Manuel Comnenus, a 
grandson of Alexius I. This prince possessed the same selfish 



204 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

and treacherous disposition that characterized his ancestor, and 
was animated by a similar fear and hatred of the Latins. While 
supplying the crusaders with provisions with one hand, he was, 
with the other, casting every obstacle in the way of their march. 
So indignant were the Latin warriors at the perfidy of the hypo- 
critical Emperor, that some of the Frankish chiefs proposed that 
they should take possession of Constantinople, and make it the 
seat of a Latin empire. It seemed to these martial princes a 
burning shame that the weak and cowardly Greeks should be per- 
mitted to obstruct the passage to the Holy Land of the warriors 
who were marching to the rescue of those sacred places which 
these degenerate Christians had shamefully allowed to fall into 
the hands of the infidels. 

The counsels, however, of the more moderate princes, who 
exhorted their companions not to turn against their own brethren 
those arms that they had assumed to fight the unbelievers, at 
length prevailed ; and the crusaders, suppressing their indignation, 
crossed the Bosphorus into Asia Minor. They here pursued their 
march in two divisions, the Germans taking one route and the 
French another. The former were misled and betrayed by their 
Greek guides, and either died miserably of famine, or were cut to 
pieces by the swords of the Turks. Conrad and the merest hand- 
ful of his followers escaped, the disheartened Emperor returning to 
Constantinople. 

The French division shared quite as hard a fate. While en- 
tangled among the mountains of Phrygia, they were attacked by 
the Turks, and great multitudes were slain. The inhabitants of the 
Greek cities refused to open their gates to the survivors, and with- 
out pity saw them die of starvation and exposure beneath their 
walls. Louis, fortunately securing some vessels at the port of At- 
talia, succeeded in reaching Antioch with a small remnant of his 
army. Hence he proceeded to Palestine, where he was joined 
by the Emperor. The siege of Damascus, which was now under- 
taken, proved unsuccessful, and the Second Crusade ended with 
this futile enterprise. 



CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM BY SALAD IN. 205 

IV. The Third Crusade (1189-1192). 

Capture of Jerusalem by Saladin. — The Third Crusade was 
caused by the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, the Sultan of 
Egypt, whose authority was at this time recognized by many of 
the Mussulman states of Asia. This event occurred in the year 
1 187. The intelligence of the disaster caused the greatest con- 
sternation and grief throughout Christendom. 

Three of the great sovereigns of Europe, Frederick Barbarossa 
of Germany, Philip Augustus of France, and Richard I. of England, 
assumed the Cross, and set out, each at the head of a large army, 
for the recovery of the Holy City. 

The English king, Richard, afterwards given the title of Cceur 
de Lion, the "Lion-hearted," in memory of his heroic exploits in 
Palestine, was the central figure among the Christian knights of 
this crusade. He raised money for the enterprise by the perse- 
cution and robbery of the Jews ; by the imposition of an unusual 
tax upon all classes ; and by the sale of offices, dignities, and the 
royal lands. When some one expostulated with him on the means 
employed to raise money, he declared that " he would sell the city 
of London, if he could find a purchaser." 

The Siege of Acre. — The German army, attempting the over- 
land route, after meeting with the usual troubles in Europe from 
the perfidy of the Greeks, was consumed in Asia Minor by the 
hardships of the march and the swords of the Turks. The Em- 
peror Frederick, according to the most probable accounts, was 
drowned while crossing a swollen stream, and the most of the 
survivors of his army, disheartened by the loss of their leader, 
returned to Germany. Only a few thousand ever saw the Holy 
Land. The English and French kings — the first sovereigns of 
these two countries who had joined their arms in a common cause 
— embarked their troops from the southern ports of France, and, 
after delays in the islands of Sicily and 'Cyprus, finally mustered 
their forces beneath the walls of Acre, which city the Christians 
were then besieging. It is estimated that 600,000 men were en- 



206 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

gaged in the investment of the place. After one of the longest 
and most costly sieges they ever carried on in Asia, the crusaders 
at last forced the place to capitulate, in spite of all the efforts of 
Saladin to render the garrison relief. 

Richard and Philip. — The arrogant and perfidious conduct 
of Richard led to an open quarrel between him and Philip. The 
latter determined to retire from the war rather than continue the 
enterprise in connection with so haughty and ungenerous a rival. 
Accordingly he returned to France. Such is the account of the 
matter as given by the French writers, while the English chroni- 
clers declare that Philip's action was prompted solely by his jeal- 
ousy of the superior military ability of the English king. 

Richard and Saladin. — The knightly adventures and chival- 
rous exploits which mark the career of Richard in the Holy Land, 
after the retirement of Philip from the field, read like a romance. 
Nor was the chief of the Mohammedans, the renowned Saladin, 
lacking in any of those knightly virtues with which the writers of 
the time invested the character of the English hero. About these 
two names gather very many of those tales of chivalric valor and 
honor with which the chroniclers of the crusades so liberally 
embellished this period of history. 

Thus it is told that these two champions of the opposing faiths 
each held in such estimation the prowess and character of the 
other, that they frequently exchanged the most generous courtesies 
and knightly compliments. One was often a guest in the tent of 
the other. At one time when Richard was sick with a fever, 
Saladin, knowing that he was poorly supplied with delicacies, sent 
him a gift of the choicest fruits of the land. And on another 
occasion, Richard's horse having been killed in battle, the Sultan 
caused a fine Arabian steed to be led to the Christian camp as a 
present for his rival. 

Richard's Captivity. — For two years did Richard the Lion- 
hearted contend in almost daily combat with his generous antagonist 
for the possession of the tomb of Christ. But the Christian hero 
was destined never to bow his knee at the shrine for the control 



RICHARD'S CAPTIVITY. 207 

of which he so valiantly battled. He finally concluded a truce of 
three years and eight months with Saladin, which provided that the 
Christians during that period should have free access to the holy 
places, and remain in undisturbed possession of the coast from 
Jaffa to Tyre. 

Refusing even to look upon the city which he could not win with 
his sword, Richard now set out for home. But while traversing 
Germany in disguise, he was discovered and arrested by Leopold 
of Austria, for Richard had made the Duke, as well as many other 
princes, his implacable enemy by his imperious and overbearing 
disposition. Eventually he was given into the hands of Henry VI., 
the German Emperor, who was also Richard's enemy on account 
of some ill-treatment received at his hands. Henry cast his 
prisoner into a dungeon, and notwithstanding the outcry of all 
Europe that the champion of Christianity should suffer such treat- 
ment at the hands of a brother prince, refused to release him with- 
out an enormous ransom. 

The English people, such was their hatred of John, the brother 
of Richard, who during his absence had usurped the throne of 
England, and so great their admiration for the hero whose prowess 
had reflected such lustre upon English knighthood, set themselves 
to raise the sum demanded, even stripping the churches of their 
plate to make up the amount ; and the lion-hearted crusader was 
at last set free, and finally reached England, where he was received 
with acclamations and unbounded joy. 1 

1 There is a story of somewhat doubtful authenticity which tells how Rich- 
ard's place of imprisonment was discovered by a friend called Blondel, who 
traveled as a troubadour through Germany, seeking information as to where 
Richard was confined. Being told that a captive of rank was kept in a certain 
castle, he stationed himself beneath the window of the tower, and sang one of 
the couplets of a song composed by Richard and himself. Immediately Richard 
made response by singing the second couplet, and thus revealed himself to his 
friend. 



208 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 



V. The Fourth Crusade 1 (i 202-1 204). 

The Crusaders bargain with the Venetians. — None of the Cru- 
sades after the Third effected much in the Holy Land ; either their 
force was spent before reaching it, or they were diverted from their 
purpose by different objects and ambitions. Among the most 
noted leaders of the Fourth Crusade was Baldwin IV., Count of 
Flanders, and Boniface II., Marquis of Montferrat, to which latter 
prince was assigned the chief command. It was determined to 
proceed by sea, and a contract was accordingly made with the 
Venetians for vessels and supplies for the voyage. But unfor- 
tunately the crusaders had promised to pay a larger sum than they 
were able to raise, and even after the nobles had generously given 
up their plate and ornaments, they still lacked a large amount. 

The Venetians now proposed in lieu of money to accept the aid 
of the crusaders in punishing the recent revolt of the city of Zara 
in Dalmatia, upon the eastern shore of the Adriatic. The crusaders 
consented, being very ready to pay a debt by the loan of their 
swords. The Pope was very much angered that they should thus 
turn aside from the object of the expedition, and threatened them 
with all the thunders of the Church, but without effect. They ren- 
dered the proposed assistance, and thus discharged their obligation 
to the Venetians. 

Capture of Constantinople by the Latins. — An event which 
happened just at this time at Constantinople turned the faces of 
the crusaders towards that city instead of Jerusalem. A revolt had 
placed a usurper upon the Byzantine throne. The rightful claim- 
ant, Alexius, besought the aid of the Frankish warriors to regain 
the sceptre. As the champion of the unfortunate and wronged, 
the Christian knights listened favorably to the appeals of Alexius. 

1 During the years 1195-1198 Henry VI. of Germany headed an army of 
German crusaders, which, before leading it to Palestine, he first employed in the 
conquest of Naples, and there sowed the seeds of future discord between that 
country and Germany. This expedition is sometimes reckoned as the fourth 
crusade, and thus the number increased to nine. 



CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE LATINS. 



209 



His promises to aid them in the conquest of Jerusalem were also 
of great weight with them. The Venetians, in consideration of a 
share of the conquests that might be made, also joined their forces 
to those of the crusaders. The armament, consisting of over three 
hundred ships, bearing about forty thousand warriors, rounded 
the southern point of Greece, threaded the JEgean archipelago, 
and finally cast anchor within sight of Constantinople. The city 
was taken by storm, and Alexius was invested with the Imperial 
authority. 

Scarcely was Alexius seated upon the throne, before the turbulent 
Greeks engaged in a revolt which resulted in his death. The cru- 
saders, who seem by this time to have quite forgotten the object 
for which they had originally set out, now resolved to take posses- 
sion of the capital, and set a Latin prince on the throne of Con- 
stantine. The determination was carried out. Constantinople 
was taken a second time by storm, and sacked, and Baldwin was 
crowned Emperor of the East. 

Thus were the apprehensions of the Alexius who reigned at the 
time of the First Crusade realized ; and thus did the Latins avenge 
themselves for a long succession of betrayals and atrocities on the 
part of the Greeks. A large portion of the provinces and cities of 
the Byzantine Empire that had not yet been torn away from it by 
the barbarians of Asia or Europe were now parcelled out among 
the Frankish knights, three eighths of the Empire, however, being 
reserved as the share of the Republic of Venice. 

The Latin Empire thus established lasted only a little over half 
a century (i 204-1 261). The Greeks, at the end of this period, 
succeeded in regaining the throne, which they then held until the 
capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. 

VI. The Children's Crusade. 
During the interval between the Fourth and Fifth Crusades, the 
epidemical fanaticism that had so long agitated Europe seized upon 
the children, resulting in what is known as the Children's Crusade. 



210 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Nothing better illustrates the spirit of the times than this singular 
movement. 

The preacher of this crusade was a child about twelve years of 
age, a peasant lad, named Stephen of Cloyes, from his birthplace 
near Orleans. The boy, who had a bright mind and a singularly 
sensitive spirit, appears to have been strangely stirred by what he 
heard and saw about him, — by the stories of the returned crusa- 
ders, the appeals of the preachers of a new crusade, and the 
mournful processions of the Church, symbolizing the captivity of 
Jerusalem. He brooded over these things until, like Joan of 
Arc, he was ready to see visions and hear voices. While in this 
frame of mind, he was visited by a priest, who represented that he 
was Jesus Christ, and commanded him to lead a crusade of chil- 
dren to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre ; assuring him that the 
victory which, on account of their pride and sins, had been with- 
held from the kings and princes who had hitherto engaged in the 
Holy Wars, would be granted to the children. To them would be 
given the honor of rescuing the sacred tomb from the hands of 
the infidels. 

The child, fully believing that the stranger was a messenger 
from heaven, straightway set about the accomplishment of his 
commission. Repairing to the tomb of St. Denis, near Paris, a 
noted place of pilgrimage, he began to preach a children's crusade. 
In great amaze the pilgrims to the shrine crowded about the child 
preacher, listened with the greatest credulity to the story that he 
told of the appearance to him of the angel, and of the commission 
he had received, and became satisfied that God had indeed called 
the child. 

A sort of frenzy now quickly overspread France and Germany, 
the children being the chief subjects of the contagion. Every- 
where minor prophets, as they were called, sprang up, and imitated 
the preaching of Stephen. The children became wild with excite- 
ment. To the places appointed for rendezvous — Vendome in 
France and Cologne in Germany — they flocked in vast crowds 
from all quarters. The greater number came from the homes of 



THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE. 211 

the peasantry, but many were also drawn from the castles of the 
nobles. Nothing could restrain them or thwart their purpose. 
"Even bolts and bars," says the chronicler, "could not hold 
them." 

The movement excited the most diverse views. Some declared 
that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and quoted such Scriptural 
texts as these to justify the enthusiasm : " A child shall lead them ;" 
" Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained 
praise." The calling of the boy Samuel was also cited as a par- 
allel case. Others, however, were quite as confident that the 
whole thing was the work of the Devil. 

So while some attempted to restrain the children, others encour- 
aged them in their mad enterprise. Philip Augustus, king of 
France, tried in a feeble way to put a stop to the insane move- 
ment ; but it was a dangerous thing in those superstitious times 
for one to oppose a crusade, no matter what might be its 
character. 

The great majority of those who collected at the rallying-places 
were boys under twelve years of age. But there were also many 
girls, besides a considerable number of fanatical monks and 
designing priests, as well as old men and women. " Men of gray 
hairs and of tottering steps," says the historian of the movement, 
" were seized with the contagion, and in their second childhood 
imitated the ardor and credulity of that which had long since 
passed away." 

The German children, that had gathered to the number of 
about 50,000 at Cologne, under the leadership of a boy named 
Nicholas, were the first to move. They divided into two bodies. 
One division, 20,000 strong, marching up the Rhine, through a 
country then wild and inhospitable, approached the Alps beneath 
the pass of Mount Cenis. Before they sighted the mountains, 
one half of their number had died, or fallen out by the way. 
Beneath the toil and exposure of the passage of the Alps many 
more of the children perished. The remnant of the little crusa- 
ders at length emerged from the mountains upon the plains of 



212 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Italy. The inhabitants of those plains had witnessed many a 
strange apparition of Gallic, Punic, Teutonic, and Hunnic hosts, 
but never before had they seen defiling from the gorges of the 
Alps an army of such warriors as these. 

The children directed their course to Genoa, firmly believing, 
as the preachers of the crusade had assured them, that the great 
drought which was then afflicting Europe was intended to dry up 
the Mediterranean, and that they would either find a passage to 
Jerusalem thus prepared, or God would miraculously open a way 
for them, as he did for the Children of Israel at the Red Sea. 

The morning after their arrival in the city, the children hastened 
to the shore, confidently expecting to find a way through the sea 
ready for them. As they looked in vain for the opening in the 
waves, discouragement settled over their spirits, and they awoke 
to the fact that they had been deceived. 

Some now returned home ; others sought situations in the city ; 
while a few, more resolute than the rest, pushed on to Pisa and 
Rome. From the former port a few sailed for the Holy Land. 
"Such of these," says Michaud, "as reached Ptolemais [Acre] 
must have created terror as well as astonishment, by making the 
Christians of the East believe that Europe had no longer any 
government or laws, no longer any prudent men, either in the 
courts of princes, or those of the Church." 

Those reaching Rome were kindly received by the Pope, who 
persuaded them to give up their enterprise and return to their 
homes, impressing upon their minds, however, that they could not 
be released from the vows they had made, which they must fulfil 
when they became men. 

The second division of German children, 20,000 in number, 
crossed the Alps by the St. Gothard pass, and marched along the 
eastern coast of Italy to Brundusium, scanning the sea eagerly at 
every port for the miraculous pathway. From Brundusium 2,000 
or 3,000 of the little crusaders sailed away into oblivion. Not a 
word ever came back from them. 

The French children — about 30,000 in number — that had gath- 



THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE. 213 

ered about the prophet Stephen, at Vendome, set out from that 
place for Marseilles. Stephen, whose head seemed to have been 
turned by the success which attended his preaching, rode in great state 
in a chariot, attended by an escort of young nobles, who paid him 
the reverence and homage due a superior and sacred being. The 
march across France was a most fatiguing one, and the prophet 
had much trouble in keeping up the spirits of his followers. They 
had no idea of the distance of the Holy Land, and seeming to for- 
get that the sea lay between them and it, whenever a city came in 
sight would ask eagerly whether it were not Jerusalem. 

Arriving at Marseilles, the children were bitterly disappointed 
that the sea did not open and give them a passage to Palestine. 
The greater part, discouraged and undeceived, now returned 
home ; but 5,000 or 6,000, accepting gladly the seemingly generous 
offer of two merchants of the city, who proposed to take them to 
the Holy Land free of charge, crowded into seven small ships, and 
sailed out of the port of Marseilles. 

For eighteen years not a word was heard of the little crusaders, 
and they were mourned as dead. Then there appeared in Europe 
an aged priest, who stated that he was one of the company that 
embarked from Marseilles, and told how the children had been 
betrayed by the traders, and sold as slaves in Alexandria and 
other Mohammedan slave-markets. A part of them, however, had 
been spared this fate, having perished in the shipwreck of two of 
the vessels that bore them from Marseilles. 

This remarkable spectacle of the children's crusade affords the 
most striking exhibition possible of the ignorance, superstition, and 
fanaticism that characterized the period. Yet we cannot but 
reverence the holy enthusiasm of an age that could make such 
sacrifices of innocence and helplessness in obedience to what was 
believed to be the will of God. 

The children's expedition marked at once the culmination and 
the decline of the crusading movement. The fanatic zeal that 
inspired the first crusaders was already dying out. " These chil- 
dren," said the Pope, referring to the young crusaders, " reproach 



214 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

us with having fallen asleep, whilst they were flying to the assist- 
ance of the Holy Land." l 

VII. Close of the Crusades : Their Results. 

The Minor Crusades. — The last four expeditions — the fifth, 
sixth, seventh, and eighth — undertaken by the Christians of 
Europe against the infidels of the East, may be conveniently 
grouped as the Minor Crusades. They were marked by a less 
fervid and holy enthusiasm than characterized the first movements, 
and exhibit among those taking part in them the greatest variety 
of objects and ambitions. 

The Fifth Crusade (12 16-1220) was organized and led by the 
kings of Hungary and Cyprus, who were aided by the Christian 
princes of Syria. Its strength was wasted in Egypt, and it resulted 
in nothing. 

The Sixth Crusade (122 7-1 229), headed by Frederick II. of 
Germany, was more successful. The Emperor succeeded in secur- 
ing from the Saracens the restoration of Jerusalem, together with 
several other cities of Palestine. After having crowned himself 
head of the little Latin Kingdom, he returned to Europe. 

The Seventh Crusade (1 249-1 254) was under the lead of 
Louis IX. of France, surnamed the Saint. It was undertaken in 
fulfilment of a vow made by the king during a serious illness when 
he despaired of recovery through ordinary means. By appeals to 
their pride and to their chivalrous and religious feelings, Louis 
succeeded in enlisting a great number of his vassal nobles in 
the enterprise. 

Landing in Egypt, the French forces met with a disastrous 
defeat at the hands of the Saracens, and the king, with a large 
part of his army, was taken prisoner. Purchasing the release of 
himself and his companions with an enormous ransom, Louis made 

1 There is some variation in the different accounts that we have of the above 
movement. We have followed, in part, Michaud, but more closely Gray, in 
his work entitled the " Children's Crusade." 



END OF THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM. 215 

his way to Palestine, where for four years he devoted himself to 
strengthening the defenses of the places held by the Christian 
knights, and to infusing spirit and regularity into the administration 
of the government of the little State. 

The Eighth Crusade (12 70-1 2 72) was incited by the fresh mis- 
fortunes that, towards the close of the thirteenth century, befell 
the Christian kingdom in Palestine. Unfortunately dissensions had 
arisen there among the Christians themselves, and the Hospitalers 
and the Templars had turned their arms against each other. Whilst 
the Christians were thus wasting their strength in unseemly quar- 
rels, Syria was invaded by the Mamelukes of Egypt. One after 
another the Christian places fell into their hands, until Antioch, in 
the north, was finally taken and sacked, amidst a horrible slaughter 
of its inhabitants. 

It was this terrible calamity which moved Europe to organize 
its last crusade. The two principal leaders of the expedition were 
Louis IX. of France and Prince Edward of England, afterwards 
Edward I. Louis directed his forces against the Moors about 
Tunis, in North Africa. Here the king died of a plague which 
broke out in his camp. Nothing was effected by this division of 
the expedition. The division led by the English prince was, how- 
ever, more fortunate, Edward succeeding in capturing Nazareth, 
and compelling the Sultan of Egypt to agree to a treaty favorable 
to the Christians(i272). 

End of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. — After the Eighth 
Crusade there were several other expeditions undertaken for the 
relief of the Christians in Palestine, but these movements were so 
feeble in numbers and spirit, and so unimportant in results, that 
they are not usually enumerated. The flame of the Crusades had 
burned itself out, and the fate of the little Christian kingdom in 
Asia, isolated from Europe, and surrounded on all sides by bitter 
enemies, became each day more and more apparent. The Chris- 
tians were confined to the narrowest strip of beach, being crowded, 
in fact, within the walls of the four cities of Tripoli, Berytus, Tyre, 
and Acre. Finally the last of these places fell before the attacks 



216 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

of an army of 200,000 Turks, and with this event the Latin King- 
dom of Jerusalem came to an end (1291). The second great 
combat between Mohammedanism and Christianity was over, and 
" silence reigned along the shore that had so long resounded with 
the world's debate." 

The knights of the religious military orders that had originated 
in Palestine during the heroic age of the Crusades retired mourn- 
fully from the land which all their prodigies of valor had been 
unable to protect from the profanation of the infidel, and sought 
elsewhere new seats for their fraternities, whence they might still 
sally forth to battle with the enemies of the Cross. 

The Hospitalers retreated first to the island of Cyprus, but 
afterwards established themselves in the island of Rhodes, where 
for more than two centuries the valiant and devoted members of 
the order were the strongest bulwark of Christian Europe against 
the advance in that quarter of the Moslem power towards the 
West. Driven at last from this island by the Turks, they eventu- 
ally retired to the island of Malta, which they received through 
the favor of Charles V. (1530). In their gallant defense of this 
rock against their old enemy the Turks, they gained not only fresh 
fame, but a new name, becoming known as the Knights of Malta. 
Upon this island the order lived on till the French Revolution, 
" the last relic of the age of the Crusaders and of Chivalry." 

The Teutonic Knights found a new seat for their order in 
Northern Europe, where members of the fraternity were already 
laying the foundations of the power of Prussia. They continued 
long the zealous champions of the Cross against the pagan tribes 
of that barbarous region. After the fourteenth century the power 
of the order rapidly declined, and it was finally dissolved by 
Napoleon, in 1809, the residence of its Grand Master being at 
that time in Suabia. 

The story of the Templar Knights is short and tragic. At the 
time of the loss of Palestine the order had innumerable houses and 
estates in all parts of Europe. The fraternity was especially pow- 
erful in France. There it excited the jealousy and cupidity of 



WHY THE CRUSADES CEASED. 217 

Philip the Fair, who suppressed the order throughout his kingdom 
in 1307, confiscating its property, and putting many of its chiefs to 
death. Five years later, the order was formally abolished by a 
papal bull, issued by Clement V. The charges against the knights, 
which were made the pretext for these persecutions, were heresy 
and immorality. 

Why the Crusades ceased. — We have said that the main 
cause which set the Crusades in motion was religious enthusiasm. 
Their cessation is due principally to the dying out of this holy 
zeal. 

Even long before the last of the Crusades the views of the 
Western Christians respecting them had materially changed ; they 
no longer believed in them. As it would be utterly impossible to 
awaken to-day any enthusiasm among the European nations for 
such undertakings, so by the opening of the fourteenth century it 
had become very difficult to get the people to take much interest in 
the matter. The illusion of superstition was broken ; the people 
had begun to see the folly, if not the wickedness, of such enter- 
prises. This change in feeling was a result of the general advance 
of the peoples of Europe in knowledge and culture, and the growth 
among them of a more tolerant spirit, due very largely, as we shall 
see when we come to speak of the effects of the Crusades, to these 
very movements themselves. 

And then the barbarian love of martial adventure, — which we 
gave as a powerful auxiliary cause of the Crusades, — as mediaeval 
society was slowly transformed by those feelings and sentiments 
that distinguish modern society, was superseded by the industrial 
and commercial spirit. The ambitious and aspiring began to 
think it wiser to make fortunes through trade, manufacture, and 
maritime enterprise than to squander them in costly expeditions 
for the recovery of holy places. 

Evils of the Crusades. — The Crusades kept all Europe in a 
tumult for two centuries, and directly or indirectly cost Christen- 
dom several millions of lives (from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 accord- 
ing to different estimates), besides incalculable expenditures in 



218 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

treasure and suffering. They were, moreover, attended by all the 
disorder, license, and crime with which war is always accompanied. 

Again, they aroused a persecuting spirit, and " taught the 
Church to assault, with military force, whole sects and districts, to 
slaughter by wholesale, instead of in detail." This is illustrated 
by the Albigensian wars ( 1 208-1 249) , in which crusade the Church 
set herself deliberately to the work of exterminating with fire and 
sword an entire people, — men, women, and children. 

The Crusades also contributed to increase — much to the dis- 
advantage of the people of Europe — the power and wealth of the 
Church. Thus the prominent part which the Popes took in the 
enterprises naturally fostered their authority and influence, by plac- 
ing in their hands, as it were, the armies and resources of Christen- 
dom, and accustoming the people to look to them as guides and 
leaders. As to the wealth of the churches and monasteries, this 
was augmented enormously by the sale to them, for a mere frac- 
tion of their actual value, of the estates of those preparing for the 
expeditions or by the out and out gift of the lands of such in 
return for prayers and pious benedictions. Often, too, religious 
houses -were made the guardians of the property of crusaders 
during their absence, which death left in the hands of these frater- 
nities. Again, thousands, returning broken in spirits and in health, 
sought an asylum in cloistral retreats, and endowed the establish- 
ments they entered with all their worldly goods. Besides all this, 
the stream of the ordinary gifts of piety was swollen by the extra- 
ordinary fervor of religious enthusiasm which characterized the 
period, into prodigious proportions. Thus were augmented the 
power of the Papacy and the riches of the Church, which led, as 
we shall see, to much evil, — to tyranny, to strife, to corruption. 

Good Results of the Crusades. — Yet notwithstanding the fact 
that the Crusades were carried on with such losses and sacrifices, 
and attended by so many evils, they were productive indirectly of 
so much and lasting good that they form a most important factor 
in the history of the progress of civilization. To show this to be 
so, we will speak briefly of their influence upon the political, the 



GOOD RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES. 219 

social, the intellectual, and the material progress and development 
of the European nations. 

First, as to the political effect of the Crusades. They helped 
to break down the power of the feudal aristocracy, and give prom- 
inence to the kings and people. Many of the nobles who set out 
on the expeditions never returned, and their estates, through fail- 
ure of heirs, escheated to the crown ; while many more wasted 
their fortunes in meeting the expenses of their undertaking. Thus 
the nobility were greatly weakened in numbers and influence, and 
the power and patronage of the kings correspondingly increased. 
At the same time, the cities also gained many political advantages 
at the expense of the crusading barons and princes. Ready 
money in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was largely in the 
hands of the burgher class, and in return for the contributions and 
loans they made to their overlords or suzerains, they received 
charters conferring special and valuable privileges. Thus, while 
power and wealth were slipping out of the hands of the nobility, 
the cities and towns were growing in political importance, and 
making great gains in the matter of municipal freedom. And 
under this head of the political effects of the Crusades, it might 
be said that they broke the tide of Turkish Moslem conquest, and 
thus postponed the fall of the Eastern Empire, or at least of the 
capital Constantinople, for three centuries and more. This gave the 
young Christian civilization of Germany time sufficient to consoli- 
date its strength to roll back the returning tide of Mohammedan 
invasion when it broke upon Europe in the fifteenth century. 

The effects of the Crusades upon the social life of the Western 
nations were marked and important. Giving opportunity for 
romantic adventure, they were one of the principal fostering influ- 
ences of Chivalry, aiding powerfully in the development of that 
institution of knighthood which, whatever may have been the 
absurdities and follies into which its merrtfoers at last fell, was the 
home in which were nourished, as we have seen, many of the best 
and most exalted sentiments and feelings of modern society. And 
under this head must be placed the general refining influence that 



220 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

contact with the more cultured nations of the East had upon the 
semi-barbarous people of the West. The rude Frankish warriors 
looked with astonishment upon the luxury of the Greeks, and 
especially upon the magnificence displayed by the Saracen chiefs, 
whom they had imagined as barbarous in manners as infidel in 
faith. 

The influence of the Crusades upon the intellectual development 
of Europe can hardly be overestimated. Above all, they liberal- 
ized the minds of the crusaders. At the commencement of the 
expeditions the Christians entertained sentiments of the bitterest 
hate and intolerance towards the Moslem infidels, whom they 
verily thought to be the " Children of Hell " ; but before the close 
of the Crusades we find that they have come to hold very different 
views respecting their antagonists. During the Third Crusade the 
Saracen chiefs were frequent guests at Richard's table, and the 
Christian knights were recipients of the same courtesy in the tent 
of the chivalrous Saladin. In a word, the voyages, observations, 
and experiences of the crusaders had just that effect in correcting 
their false notions, and in liberalizing their narrow and intolerant 
ideas, that wide travel and close contact with different peoples and 
races never fail of producing upon even the dullest and most 
bigoted person. Furthermore, the knowledge of geography, 1 and 
of the science and learning of the East, gained by the crusaders 
through their expeditions, greatly stimulated the Latin intellect, 
and helped to awaken in Western Europe that mental activity 
which resulted finally in the great intellectual outburst known 
as the Revival of Learning. 

Among the effects of the Holy Wars upon the material develop- 
ment of Europe must be mentioned the spur they gave to the 
commercial enterprise of the merchants of the W T est, especially the 

1 " If I were asked," sayjg Sismondi, as quoted by Stille, " what was the 
knowledge acquired during the Middle Ages which did most to quicken and 
develop the intelligence of that time, I should say, without the slightest hesi- 
tation, the knowledge of geography acquired by the pilgrims to the Holy 
Land." 






GOOD RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES. 221 

citizens of the Italian cities. During this period, Venice, Pisa, and 
Genoa acquired great wealth and reputation through the fostering 
of their trade by the needs of the crusaders, and the opening up 
of the East. The Mediterranean was whitened with the sails of 
their transport ships, which were constantly plying between the 
various ports of Europe and the towns of the Syrian coast. Also, 
various arts, manufactures, and inventions before unknown in Eu- 
rope, were introduced from Asia. This enrichment of the civiliza- 
tion of the West with the " spoils of the. East " we may allow to be 
emblemized by the famous bronze horses that the crusaders carried 
off from Constantinople, and set up before St. Mark's Cathedral in 
Venice. 

Lastly, the incentive given to geographical discovery led vari- 
ous travelers, such as the celebrated Italian, Marco Polo and the 
scarcely less famous Englishman, Sir John Mandeville, to explore 
the most remote countries of Asia. Nor did the matter end here. 
Even that spirit of maritime enterprise and adventure which ren- 
dered illustrious the fifteenth century, inspiring the voyages of 
Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan, may be traced back 
to that lively interest in geographical matters, that curiosity re- 
specting the remote regions of the earth, awakened by the expedi- 
tions of the crusaders. 



222 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY: DECLINE OF ITS 
TEMPORAL POWER. 

Introductory. — In a previous chapter we traced the gradual 
rise of the Papacy, and stated the several theories respecting its 
relation to temporal rulers. It will be recalled that the " papal 
party " maintained the absolute supremacy of the spiritual over 
the temporal power. They would effect a perfect union of Church 
and State, not on the basis of mutual co-operation, but on that of 
the complete subordination of the State to the Church. In the 
present chapter, we propose to tell how near the Papacy came to 
realizing this magnificent dream, and of the long struggle between 
it and the secular rulers of Europe, resulting in the final triumph 
and emancipation of the temporal power. 

Pope Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) and his System. — The re- 
duction to practice of the splendid theory of the papal party, and 
the virtual establishment for a time of a spiritual theocracy over 
the European nations, was due more than aught else to the fortu- 
nate succession in the Apostolic See of great men, all animated by 
a steady and single purpose, " who each contributed a stone to 
that wondrous edifice which thus grew from age to age, till it 
seemed that its top was to reach even unto heaven." 

The most famous of these artificers of the papal fortunes was 
Pope Gregory VII., perhaps better known as Hildebrand, the must 
noteworthy character after Charlemagne that the Middle Ages pro- 
duced. Hildebrand was the son of a humble carpenter of Soana, 
in Tuscany. In the year 1049 he was called from the cloisters of 
a French monastery to Rome, there to become the maker and 
adviser of Popes, and finally to be himself elevated to the ponti- 
fical throne, which he held from 1073 to 1080. Being a man of 



POPE GREGORY VII. AND HIS SYSTEM. 223 

great force of character and magnificent breadth of view, he did 
much towards establishing the universal spiritual and temporal 
sovereignty of the Holy See. He vehemently rejected the idea 
that the temporal power was superior to the spiritual, or that the 
two were equal and co-ordinate, assuming that their divinely or- 
dained relation was the supremacy of the Church over the State. 
The Pope, as the vicegerent of God on earth, was the supreme and 
infallible arbiter in all temporal as well as spiritual affairs. 

In carrying out his scheme of exalting the Papal See above all 
prelates and princes, Gregory, as soon as he became Pope, set 
about two important reforms, — the enforcement of celibacy among 
the secular clergy, and the suppression of simony. By the first 
measure he aimed to effect not only a much needed moral reform, 
but, by separating the clergy from all the attachments of home 
and neighborhood and country, to render them the dependent 
janizaries of the Church, with no interests to promote save those 
of the Holy See. 

The second reform, the correction of simony, had for its ulti- 
mate object the freeing of the lands and offices of the Church 
from the control of temporal lords and princes, and the bringing 
of them more completely into the hands of the Roman Bishop. 

The evil of simony 1 had grown up in the Church in the following 
way : As the feudal system took possession of European society, 
the Church, like individuals and cities, assumed feudal relations. 
Thus, as we have already seen, abbots and bishops, as the heads of 
monasteries and churches, for the sake of protection, became the 
vassals of powerful barons or princes. When once a prelate had 
rendered homage for his estates or temporalities, as they were 
called, these became thenceforth a permanent fief of the overlord, 
and upon the death of the holder could be re-bestowed by the lord 
upon whomsoever he chose. These Church estates and positions 
that thus came within the gift of the temporal princes were, of 

1 By simony is meant the purchase of an office in the Church, the name of 
the offence coming from Simon Magus, who offered Paul money for the gift 
of curing diseases. 



224 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

course, eagerly sought after by the clergy, and often large sums 
were paid for them, the patrons conferring them upon the highest 
bidder. So long as a considerable portion of the clergy sustained 
this vassal relation to the feudal lords, the Papal See could not 
hope to exercise any great authority over them. 

To remedy the evil Gregory issued a decree that no priest, 
abbot, bishop, archbishop, or other officer of the Church should do 
homage to a temporal lord, but that he should receive the ring 
and staff, the symbols of investiture, from the hands of the Pope 
alone. Any one who should dare disobey the decree was threat- 
ened with the anathemas of the Church. 

Such was the bold measure by which the audacious Pontiff 
proposed to wrest out of the hands of the feudal lords and 
princes the vast patronage and immense revenues resulting from 
the relation they had gradually come to sustain to a large portion 
of the lands and riches of the Church. To realize the magnitude 
of the proposed revolution, we must bear in mind that the Church 
at this time was in possession of probably one half of the lands of 
Europe. 

Excommunications and Interdicts. — The principal instru- 
ments relied upon by Gregory for the carrying out of his scheme 
were the spiritual thunders of the Church, — Excommunication 
and Interdict. 

The first was directed against individuals. The person excom- 
municated was cut off from all relations with his fellow-men. If a 
king, his subjects were released from their oath of allegiance. 
Any one providing the accused with food or shelter incurred the 
wrath of the Church. Living, the excommunicated person was to 
be shunned and abhorred as though tainted with an infectious dis- 
ease ; and dead, he was to be refused the ordinary rites of burial. 

The Interdict was directed against a city, province, or kingdom. 
Throughout the region under this ban, the churches were closed ; 
no bell could be rung, no marriage celebrated, no burial ceremony 
performed. The rites of baptism and extreme unction alone could 
be administered. 



GREGORY VII. AND HENRY IV. OF GERMANY. 225 

It is difficult for us who have come to regard the thunders of 
the Church as harmless, to realize the effect of these anathemas 
upon a superstitious age. They rarely failed during the eleventh 
and twelfth centuries of bringing the most contumacious offender 
to a speedy and abject confession. This will appear in the fol- 
lowing paragraph. 

Gregory VII. and Henry IV. of Germany. — The decree of 
Gregory respecting the relation of the clergy to the feudal lords 
created a perfect storm of opposition, not only among the tem- 
poral princes and sovereigns of Europe, but also among the 
clergy themselves. The dispute thus begun distracted Europe for 
centuries. 

Gregory experienced the most formidable opposition to his 
scheme in Germany. The Emperor Henry IV. refused to recog- 
nize his decree, and even called a council of the clergy of Ger- 
many and deposed him. Gregory in turn gathered a council at 
Rome, and deposed and excommunicated the Emperor. This 
encouraged a revolt on the part of some of Henry's discontented 
subjects. He was shunned as a man accursed by heaven. His 
authority seemed to have slipped entirely out of his hands, and 
his kingdom was on the point of going to pieces. In this wretched 
state of his affairs there was but one thing for him to do, — to go 
to Gregory, and humbly sue for pardon and re-instatement in the 
favor of the Church. 

Henry sought the haughty Pontiff at Canossa among the Apen- 
nines. But Gregory refused to admit the penitent to his presence. 
It was winter, and for three successive days the king, clothed in 
sackcloth, stood with bare feet in the snow of the court-yard of the 
palace, waiting for permission to kneel at the feet of the Pontiff and 
receive forgiveness. 

This was the strangest scene that the world had ever witnessed, 
— the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the successor of the 
Caesars and of Charlemagne, a rejected penitent at the door of 
the Roman Pontiff. 

On the fourth day the penitent king was admitted to the pres- 



226 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

ence of Gregory, who re-instated him in favor — to the extent of 
removing the sentence of excommunication (1077). 

Henry afterwards avenged his humiliation. He raised an army, 
invaded Italy, and drove Gregory into exile at Salerno, where he 
died. His last words were, " I have loved justice and hated in- 
iquity, and therefore I die in exile " (1085). 

But the quarrel did not end here. It was taken up by the suc- 
cessors of Gregory, and Henry was again excommunicated. After 
maintaining a long struggle with the power of the Church, and 
with his own sons, who were incited to rebel against him, he finally 
died of a broken heart (1106). For five years his body was 
denied burial ; but at last the ban of the Church was removed, and 
it was laid to rest with royal honors. 

The Popes and the Hohenstaufen Emperors. — In the twelfth 
century began the long and fierce contention — lasting more 
than a hundred years — between the Papal See and the Emperors 
of the proud House of Hohenstaufen. 1 It was simply the continu- 
ation and culmination of the struggle begun long before to decide 
which should be supreme, the " world-priest " or the "world-king." 
The outcome was the final triumph of the Roman Bishops and the 
utter ruin of the Hohenstaufen. 

The Papacy at its Height. — The authority of the Popes was 
at its height during the thirteenth century. The beginning of this 
period of Papal splendor is marked by the accession to the pon- 
tifical throne of Innocent III. (1 198-12 16), the greatest of the 
Popes after Gregory VII. Under him was very nearly made good 
the Papal claim that all earthly sovereigns were merely vassals of 
the Roman Pontiff. Almost all the kings and princes of Europe 
swore fealty to him as their overlord. " Rome was once more the 
mistress of the world." 

Pope Innocent III. and Philip Augustus of France. — One of 
Innocent's most signal triumphs in his contest with the kings of 

1 The first king of the Hohenstaufen (or Swabian) dynasty was Conrad 
III. (1138-1152); the last was Conrad IV., who died 1254. The most noted 
Emperors of the line were Frederick I. (Barbarossa) and Frederick II. 



POPE INNOCENT III AND KING JOHN OF ENGLAND. 227 

Europe was gained over Philip Augustus (i 180-1223) of France. 
That king having put away his wife, Innocent commanded him to 
take her back, and forced him to submission by means of an 
interdict. "This submission of such a prince," says Hallam, "not 
feebly superstitious like his predecessor Robert, nor vexed with 
seditions, like the Emperor Henry IV., but brave, firm, and 
victorious, is perhaps the proudest trophy in the scutcheon of 
Rome." 

Pope Innocent III. and King John of England. — Innocent's 
quarrel with King John (1 199-1 216) of England will afford another 
illustration of the arrogance with which the Pontiff dealt with the 
sovereigns of Europe. The See of Canterbury falling vacant, John 
ordered the monks who had the right of election to give the place 
to a favorite of his, John de Gray, Bishop of Norwich. They 
obeyed ; but the Pope immediately declared the election void, and 
caused the vacancy to be filled with one of his own friends, 
Stephen Langton. John declared that the Pope's archbishop 
should never enter England as primate, and proceeded to confis- 
cate the estates of the See. Innocent III. now laid all England 
under an interdict, excommunicated John, and incited the French 
king, Philip Augustus, to undertake a crusade against the con- 
tumacious rebel. 

The outcome of the matter was that John, like the German 
Emperor before him, was compelled to yield to the power of the 
Church. He gave back the lands he had confiscated, acknowl- 
edged Langton to be the rightful primate of England, and even 
went so far as to give England to the Pope as a perpetual fief. 
In token of his vassalage he agreed to pay to the Papal See the 
annual sum of 1000 marks. This tribute money was actually 
paid, though with very great irregularity, until the seventeenth 
year of the reign of Edward I. (1289). 

The Mendicants, or Begging Friars. — The authority of the 
immediate successors of Innocent III. was powerfully supported 
by the monastic orders of the Dominicans and Franciscans, 
established early in the thirteenth century. They were named 



228 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

after their respective founders, St. Dominic (n 70-1 221) and St. 
Francis (1 182-1226). The principles on which these fraternities 
were established were very different from those which had shaped 
all previous monastic institutions. Until now the monk had sought 
cloistral solitude in order to escape from the world, and through 
penance and prayer and contemplation to work out his own salva- 
tion. In the new orders, the monk was to give himself wholly to 
the work of securing the salvation of others. 

Again, the orders were also as orders to renounce all earthly 
possessions, and, " espousing Poverty as a bride," to rely entirely 
for support upon the alms of the pious. Hitherto, while the indi- 
vidual members of a monastic order must affect extreme poverty, 
the house or fraternity might possess any amount of communal 
wealth. 

The new fraternities grew and spread with marvelous rapidity, 
and in less than a generation they quite overshadowed all of the 
old monastic orders of the Church. The Popes conferred many 
and special privileges upon them, and they in turn became for a 
time — although from their ranks at last were to arise men who 
should shake the power of the Papal throne itself — the staunch- 
est friends and supporters of the Roman See. They formed what 
has been called the militia of the Popes. They were to the Papacy 
of the thirteenth century what the later order of the Jesuits was to 
the Roman Church of the seventeenth. 1 

1 The Begging Friars soon forgot, or rather evaded, their vows of poverty, 
and grew to be the richest orders of the Church. (They sought to satisfy 
their vows by allowing the Pope to hold the title of their property, while they 
simply enjoyed the income from it.) With wealth, vices of all sorts crept into 
their ranks. The indolence of the Friars, their licentiousness, and their way 
of begging alms and of watching for legacies for their houses at the bedside of 
the dying, rendered them the pest and byword of society. A writer who lived 
not more than half a century after the death of St. Francis declares that " the 
sight of a begging friar in the distance was more dreaded than that of a rob- 
ber." The fearful evil of mendicancy in Italy may doubtless be properly 
attributed, in a large measure, to the sanctification of the thing by the Begging 
Friars. — See Trench, Medieval Church History, Lecture XVI. 



REVOLT OF THE TEMPORAL PRINCES. 229 

Revolt of the Temporal Princes. — Having noticed some of 
the most prominent circumstances and incidents that marked the 
gradual advance of the Bishops of Rome to almost universal 
political and ecclesiastical sovereignty, we will now direct atten- 
tion to some of the chief events that marked the decline of their 
temporal power, and prepared the way for the rejection, at a later 
date, by a large part of Christendom, of their spiritual claims and 
pretensions. 

It was perhaps the very vastness of the Papal authority that, 
more than anything else, contributed to its insecurity and fore- 
shadowed disaster. As has been aptly said, only omnipotence 
directed by omniscience could hope to wield safely such tremendous 
and varied powers. The new Papal Rome, like the old Pagan 
Rome, had reached out too far and grasped too much. In weak 
hands the unwieldy double sceptre trembled and was useless. 

This is illustrated by the events which distinguish the close of 
the thirteenth and the opening of the fourteenth century. The 
pontifical throne being then occupied by weaker prelates than 
those who had held it during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 
the temporal princes in almost all the countries of Europe were 
encouraged to attempt to regain their lost independence. France, 
Germany, and England successively revolted, and denied the right 
of the Pope to interfere in their political or governmental affairs. 

But it must be borne in mind that the leaders of this revolt 
against the secular dominion of the Papacy did not think of chal- 
lenging the claims of the Popes to recognition as the supreme head 
of the Church, and the rightful arbiters in all spiritual matters. 
At the very time that they were striving to emancipate themselves 
from Papal control in temporal matters, they were lending the 
Church all their strength to punish heresy and schism. Thus 
the Albigenses in Southern France, the Lollards in England, and 
the Hussites in Bohemia were extirpated or punished by the sword 
of the civil power, wielded in obedience to the commands of the 
Roman See. 

Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair, — It was during the pon- 



230 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

tificate of Boniface VIII. (i 294-1 303), — an incredibly arrogant, 
audacious, and injudicious person, — that the temporal authority 
of the Papacy fell into contempt, and began rapidly to decline. 
His quarrel with Philip the Fair of France is quite as famous, and 
certainly as instructive respecting the temper of the times in which 
it occurred, as is that between Gregory VII. and Henry IV. of 
Germany. 

Philip having presumed to tax the clergy of France, and to 
do some other things displeasing to Boniface, the latter finally 
addressed the king in substance as follows : " Boniface the Pope 
to Philip the Fair, greetings. . . . Know thou, O Supreme Prince, 
that thou art subject to us in all things." Philip's reply was 
unnecessarily rude. Its style was after this manner : " Philip the 
Fair to Boniface, little or no greetings. . . . Know thou, O Supreme 
Stupidity, that in governmental matters, we are subject neither to 
you nor to any other person." 

Philip was bold because he knew that his people were with him. 
Recently assembled in the States-General, the three orders of the 
nation, the nobility, the clergy, and the commons, had declared 
that the Pope had no authority in France in political or temporal 
matters. 

Removal of the Papal Seat to Avignon (1309). — One of the 
severest blows given both the temporal and spiritual authority of 
the Popes was the removal, in 1309, through the influence of 
Philip the Fair, of the Papal chair from Rome to Avignon, in 
Provence, near the frontier of France. Here it remained for a 
space of about seventy years, an era known in Church history as 
the Babylonian Captivity. While it was established here, all the 
Popes were French, and of course all their policies were shaped and 
controlled by the French kings. " In that city," says Stille, " the 
Papacy ceased, in the eyes of a very large part of Christendom, to 
possess that sacred cosmopolitan character which no doubt had 
had much to do with the veneration and respect with which the 
Catholic authority had been regarded." 

The Great Schism (1378). — The discontent awakened among 



THE CHURCH COUNCILS OF CONSTANCE AND PISA. 231 

the Italians by the situation of the Papal court at length led to 
an open rupture between them and the French party. In 1378 
the opposing factions each elected a Pope, and thus there were 
two heads of the Church, one at Avignon and the other at Rome. 
This state of things, complicated, however, by the Council of Pisa 
in 1409, lasted until 1414. 

The spectacle of two rival Popes, each claiming to be the right- 
ful successor of St. Peter and the sole infallible head of the 
Church, very naturally led men to question the claims and infalli- 
bility of both. It gave the reverence which the world had so 
generally held for the Holy Roman See a rude shock, and one 
from which it never recovered. 

The Church Councils of Constance and Pisa. — Finally, in 1409, 
a general council of the Church assembled at Pisa, for the purpose 
of composing the shameful quarrel. This council deposed both 
Popes, and elected Alexander V. as the supreme head of the 
Church. But matters instead of being mended hereby were only 
made worse ; for neither of the deposed pontiffs would lay down 
his authority in obedience to the demands of the council, and 
consequently there were now three Popes instead of two. 

In 1 4 14 another council was called, at Constance, for the set- 
tlement of the growing dispute. Two of the claimants were 
deposed, and one resigned. A new Pope was then elected, the 
choice of the assembly falling upon Cardinal Colonna, who became 
Pope Martin V. In his person the Catholic world was again 
united under a single spiritual head. The schism was outw r ardly 
healed, but the wound had been too deep not to leave permanent 
marks upon the Church. Furthermore, the dissolute and rapa- 
cious character of many of the rival Popes had cast ineffaceable 
stains upon the robes of the pontifical office. 

The awe and reverence which had once been felt for the Holy 
See were forever destroyed, and with these gone, the spell with 
which it had bound the world was broken. The Roman Pontiffs, 
although the battles of the lost cause were fought over again and 
again in different countries, were never able, after the events of 



232 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAE 

the fourteenth century, to exercise such authority over the kings 
of Europe, or exact from them such obedience, as had been possi- 
ble to the Popes of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The 
splendid scheme of Hildebrand, though so nearly realized, had at 
last, as to one half its purpose, proved an utter failure. — " the 
grandest and most magnificent failure in human history." 

The Papacy remains a Spiritual Theocracy. — We say that 
the Roman Pontiffs failed as to one half their purpose ; for while 
they failed to make good their supremacy in temporal affairs, they 
did succeed in establishing and perpetuating an absolute spiritual 
dominion, their plenary authority in all matters of faith being to-day 
acknowledged by more than one half of all those who bear the 
name of Christian. The Council of Constance, indeed, decreed 
that the Pope is subject to an ecumenical council, and that a 
decision of the Roman See maybe appealed from to the judgment 
of the Church gathered in one of these great assemblies, which 
were to be convened every ten years. Thus the Church was for a 
moment converted into a limited monarchy ; and perhaps if this 
form could have actually been impressed upon it, and general 
councils regularly convened, the Roman Catholic Church might 
have gradually corrected those abuses that had crept into it, and 
the great popular revolt of the sixteenth century have been pre- 
vented. But Martin V., the Pope elected by the Council of Con- 
stance, in unfortunate opposition to the edicts of that assembly, 
issued a bull declaring" it unlawful for any one either to appeal 
from the judgment of the Apostolic See, or to reject its decisions 
in matters of faith." 

The Papal party, the party of absolutism, carried the day. Only 
one ecumenical council has been held since the Council of Trent, 
which was called in 1545 to condemn the doctrines of Luther ; and 
this assembly (the Vatican Council, 1869-18 70) met only to 
promulgate the famous decree of Papal Infallibility. 

And thus the Papacy, though its temporal power has been 
entirely taken from it, and its spiritual authority repudiated by 
one half of Christendom, still remains, as Macaulay says, " not in 



THE PAPACY REMAINS A SPIRITUAL THEOCRACY. 233 

decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor." 
The Pope is to-day the supreme and infallible Head of a Church 
that, in the famous words of the brilliant writer just quoted, "was 
great and respected before Saxon had set foot on Britain, before 
the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still 
flourished in Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the 
temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigor 
when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast 
solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to 
sketch the ruins of St. Paul's." 



234 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 



CHAPTER V. 

CONQUESTS OF THE TURANIAN OR TARTAR TRIBES. 

Introductory. — As the different terms Aryan, Indo-European, 
and Indo-Germanic are employed to designate that great family 
of historic nations descended from the ancient Aryans of Bactria, 
so the terms Turanian, Scythian, and Tartar are different names 
used, though more loosely, to designate the various tribes of con- 
querors, hunters, and shepherds of Central and Northern Asia. 1 

It has been only now and then that we have caught a glimpse 
of the hostile bands of this race, hovering like dark clouds on the 
outskirts of civilization, and threatening at times not only the 
peace, but the very existence of the settled communities of Asia 
and Europe. The time has now come when we must weave our 
isolated notices of these people into a connected though necessarily 
brief narrative, in order to render intelligible our proposed recital 
of the migrations and conquests of some of the leading tribes of 
this race during the latter part of the Middle Ages. 

The Turanians and Aryans compared. — As our previous stud- 
ies have made us familiar with the migrations and conquests of the 

1 The terms Scythian and Tartar ought not properly to be given the same 
extension as the term Turanian. Turanian has the broadest meaning, Scythian 
a narrower range, and Tartar the least comprehensiveness. Thus the names may 
be considered as corresponding to the terms Aryan, Teutonic, and Germanic, 
as applied to the Indo-European family of nations, and the subdivisions of the 
family. 

A word of explanation respecting the term Tartar. This is a corruption of 
Tatar, the name given originally by the Chinese to a fierce Mongolian tribe, 
whence the term came naturally to be applied to neighboring tribes of a similar 
ferocious disposition, though these belonged to another race, — the Turanian. 
When the barbarians bearing this name appeared in the West, they were called, 
either through a play upon the word or through a real misapprehension, Tartars, 
as though from Tartarus, or hell. 



THE TURANIANS AND ARYANS COMPARED. 235 

Aryan peoples, we may use their story to illustrate that of the 
Turanian tribes. The histories of the two families of peoples pre- 
sent both parallels and contrasts. 

Thus both of these great races, so far as our knowledge goes, 
had their earliest development in the central regions of Asia. It 
is from this same great "nursery of nations" whence the Aryan 
peoples came, that the Scythian hordes, through all the centuries 
known to history, have issued like swarms of locusts, to devastate 
the richer and more favored lands of the earth. In these migra- 
tory movements or expeditions of conquest, the Turanians have 
always followed in the footsteps of the Aryans (whom, perhaps, 
they crowded from their ancestral home), descending upon India 
and Southwestern Asia from the very same passes of those moun- 
tains that were first climbed by the ancestors of the Hindus and 
Persians in their southerly migrations, or pouring over the very 
same plains which, gradually declining from the uplands of Central 
Asia, previously formed the natural pathway into Europe of the 
Aryan folk. 

Again, the manner in which these Scythian warriors overran 
and took possession of the decaying Empire of the Saracens — and 
afterwards that of the Greeks — presents a striking contrast to the 
seizure of the provinces of the Roman Empire in the West by the 
Teutonic tribes. They were the Goths and Vandals of the East. 
When, in the tenth century, the power of the Caliphs began to 
decline, — the early religious ardor of the Arabs having cooled, — 
these rulers, in imitation of the Roman Emperors, resorted to the 
device of recruiting their armies from among the barbarians that 
were pushing over the northern frontiers. Thus received within 
the State as allies and mercenaries, it was not long before, imitat- 
ing the action of the Teutons in the West, they snatched the 
sceptre for themselves. 

Another parallel occurs in the matter of religion. As the Teu- 
tonic conquerors of Rome were, many of them, converts to Chris- 
tianity before they passed the frontiers of the Empire, so many of 
the Tartar tribes were converts to the Moslem faith before they 



236 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

entered the Caliphate ; while others, again, as was also true of 
some of the Teutonic invaders of the Roman provinces, were 
fierce pagans when they fell upon the Saracens, and not until 
afterwards were led to embrace the creed of Mohammed. 

It is interesting, moreover, to notice that while the Turanians 
and Aryans both exchanged their primitive faiths for religions 
borrowed from the Semites, each made a different choice : the 
Aryans generally accepted the faith of the Hebrew Teacher, while 
the Turanians chose that of the Arabian Prophet. The Persians are 
the only important people of Aryan stock who have adopted the 
creed of Mohammed, whereas the Hungarians, Finns, and Lapps 
are the only Turanian peoples that have embraced Christianity. 

In intellectual and literary attainments the Turanians are, as 
a race, infinitely inferior to the Aryans ; only in rare instances has 
anything that might be called a literature been developed among 
them. As a general thing they have remained quite uninfluenced 
by the arts and learning of the more civilized people among 
whom they have thrust themselves. They have contributed little, 
almost absolutely nothing, in a direct way, to the civilization of 
the world. Their mission seems to have been the destruction of 
corrupt, worn-out civilizations ; such, at least, has been their rough 
work, as will appear as we now proceed to trace some of their 
most important conquests. 

The Parthian Empire. — The wild tribes of Scythia were a 
constant threat to the early Assyrian and Persian monarchies. 
Their flying bands of horsemen were ever sweeping down from 
the northern mountains, and harrying the plains of Mesopotamia 
and Iran. But it was not until about the middle of the third 
century B.C. that the Parthians made a permanent conquest south 
of the Hindu Kush. Then they wrenched Persia from the Seleu- 
cidae, and set up the great Parthian Empire, the " Sixth Ancient 
Monarchy of Western Asia." l 

1 This is the name given it by Rawlinson, who considers it worthy a place 
along with the great Chakkean, Assyrian, Median, Babylonian, and Persian 
empires, 



THE HUNS AND HUNGARIANS. 237 

These fierce warriors gradually extended the limits of their 
empire, until it included a great part of the countries embraced 
by the monarchy of the ancient Persian kings. They were the 
most formidable enemies of the Roman legions. The defeat of 
Crassus at their hands was one of the most memorable disasters 
that ever befell the Roman arms. 

The Parthian dynasty lasted about five centuries, — until a.d. 
226, when it was overthrown by a revolt of the Persians, and the 
New Persian or Sassanian monarchy established. This latter 
empire lasted until the country was overrun by the Saracens in 
the seventh century. 

The Huns and Hungarians. — The Huns were the first Tura- 
nian tribe that during historic times pushed their way among the 
peoples of Europe. We have in another place told how in the 
fourth century after Christ these horrible savages appeared on the 
eastern borders of the continent, and drove the Goths in great 
panic across the Danube into the provinces of the Roman 
Empire ; and how, a little later, *under the lead of the renowned 
Attila, they crossed the Rhine, and mustered upon the plains of 
Chalons in France 700,000 warriors, there to suffer a terrible 
defeat at the hands of the combined armies of the Goths and 
Romans. 1 

The next Turanian invasion of Europe was made in the ninth 
century by the Magyars, or Hungarians, another branch of the 
Hunnic race, who succeeded in thrusting themselves far into the 
continent, and establishing there the important Kingdom of Hun- 
gary. These people, in marked contrast to what we observe in 
the case of almost every other tribe of Turanian origin, adopted 
the manners, customs, and religion of the peoples about them — 
became, in a word, thoroughly Europeanized, and for a long time 
were the main defense of Christian Europe against the Turkish 
tribes of the same race that followed closely in their footsteps. 

The Seljukian Turks. — The Seljukian Turks, so called from 
the name of one of their chiefs, are the next Tartar people that 
1 See Outlines of Ancient History, pp. 395, 405. 



238 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

thrust themselves prominently upon our notice. Towards the 
close of the eleventh century the leaders of this martial race had 
built up a sovereignty that was recognized from the confines of 
China to the Bosphorus. Togrul Beg, the founder of the empire, 
captured Bagdad in 1058. The Caliph was allowed to retain his 
spiritual authority, while the Turkish chieftain, with the title of 
" Vicar of the Faithful," assumed the supreme control in all temporal 
matters. His successors conquered the Caliphs of Cairo, captured 
Jerusalem, overran Asia Minor, defeated and took prisoner the 
Greek Emperor, and finally pitched their tents within sight of 
Constantinople. 

It was the capture of the holy places in Palestine by this fierce 
and intolerant race, and their threatening advance towards Europe 
by way of the Bosphorus, that alarmed the Christian nations of 
Europe, and led to the First Crusade. The capture by the crusa- 
ders of their capital Nice, in Bithynia, the recovery of Jerusalem, 
and the establishment in Palestine of the little Latin kingdom of 
Godfrey and his companion knights, — all this has been told as a 
part of the history of the First Crusade. 

The blows dealt the empire of the Seljuks by the Christian war- 
riors, and disputes and civil wars respecting the succession, caused 
the once formidable sovereignty to crumble to pieces, only, how- 
ever, to be replaced by others of equally rapid growth, destined to 
as quick a decay. 

The Mongols, or Moguls. — While the power of the Seljukian 
Turks was declining in Western Asia, the Mongols, or Moguls, a 
fierce and utterly untamed Tartar tribe that first issued from the 
easternmost part of Chinese Tartary, were building up a new dy- 
nasty among the various tribes of the central portion of the conti- 
nent. In the year 1 156 was born their greatest chieftain, Temujin, 
afterwards named Genghis Khan, or " Universal Sovereign," the 
most terrible scourge that ever afflicted the human race. At the 
head of vast armies, made up of numerous Turanian hordes, he trav- 
ersed with sword and torch the greater part of Asia. Overleaping 
the Great Wall of China, built some fifteen centuries before as a 



THE MONGOLS, OR MOGULS. 239 

defense against the ancestors of these same or kindred Tartar 
tribes, he conquered all the northern part of the Chinese kingdom ; 
then, leading his followers to the west, he reduced to submission 
the tribes of Turkestan, and then descended upon the countries of 
the South. Persians, Saracens, Turks, and Greeks — Christians 
and Mohammedans — fell victims alike to the conqueror's insa- 
tiable thirst for blood and plunder. Cities disappeared as he 
advanced. Rich plains were transformed into horrid deserts. 

Before his death, which occurred in 1226, Genghis had extended 
his authority over a wider reach of territory than Persian or Roman 
had ever ruled. It is estimated that this enormous empire was 
built up at the cost of fifty thousand cities and towns and five 
millions of lives, — a greater waste, probably, than resulted from 
all the Crusades. 

Upon the death of Genghis Khan, his empire passed into the 
hands of his son Oktai, a worthy successor of the great conqueror. 
He made an inroad into Russia, ravaging the country as far as Ger- 
many, and in other directions pushed out permanently the bounda- 
ries of the empire. His successor, Kublai Khan, still farther enlarged 
and strengthened the monarchy, so that it now embraced the best 
part of Asia, besides a considerable portion of Europe. He made 
Peking his royal seat, and there received ambassadors and visitors 
from all parts of the world. It was during the reign of this prince 
that the celebrated Italian traveller Marco Polo made through the 
East those journeys of which he gave such a marvelous account. 

Upon the death of Kublai Khan, the immoderately extended 
empire fell into disorder, and became broken into many petty 
states. It needed to be welded again by the genius of another 
chieftain. Tamerlane, or Timour the Lame, a descendant of Gen- 
ghis, was the one destined by Providence for the work of re-estab- 
lishing the Mongol dominion. This renowned conqueror was born 
in 1336. With his wild hordes he traversed anew almost all the 
countries that had been tracked by the sanguinary marches of 
Genghis. The route of the barbarians was everywhere marked 
by ruined fields and burned villages. It was Tamerlane's cus- 



240 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

torn to build the heads or bodies of his enemies into vast pyra- 
mids or towers laid with cement, as ghastly monuments of his 
vengeance or prowess. Thus, upon the capture of Bagdad, he is 
said to have memorialized the victory by the erection of a trium- 
phal column containing ninety thousand heads of the slaughtered 
inhabitants. 

Asia has never recovered from the terrible devastation of the 
Mongol conquerors. Many districts, swarming with life, were 
entirely swept of their population by these destroyers of the race, 
and have remained to this day desolate as the tomb. 

The immense empire of Tamerlane crumbled to pieces after his 
death. One of its fragments had a remarkable history. This was 
the dynasty established in India, which became known as the 
Kingdom of the Great Moguls. This Mongol state lasted upwards 
of 300 years, — until destroyed by the English in the present 
century. The magnificence of the court of the Great Moguls at 
Delhi and Agra is one of the most splendid traditions of the East. 
These foreign rulers gave India some of her finest architectural 
monuments. The mausoleum at Agra, known as the Taj Mahal, 
is one of the most beautiful structures in the world. 

The Ottoman Empire. 

Founding of the. Empire. — The latest, most permanent, and 
most important of the Tartar sovereignties was established by the 
Ottoman Turks, who were ah offshoot of the Seljukians. The 
empire takes its name from its founder, Othman, who, about the 
close of the thirteenth century, united under his rule various Turk- 
ish tribes, which the Mongol conquests had crowded westward into 
Asia Minor. 

Gradually this martial race seized province after province of the 
Asiatic possessions of the Byzantine Emperors. Finally, through 
the quarrels that were constantly distracting Constantinople, they 
gained a foothold in Europe. In the year 1353 a faction at the 
capital invited them across the Bosphorus to fight the Bulgarians, 



THE JANIZARIES, 241 

whom the other party had called to their aid. Like the Angles 
and Saxons, who, entering England on invitation, remained as 
conquerors, these barbarians were barely across the straits before 
they began to make conquests for themselves. During the reign 
of Amurath I. (1360-1389) a large part of the country known as 
Turkey in Europe fell into their hands. 

The Janizaries. — Amurath was the organizer of the celebrated 
body of soldiers known as the Janizaries. The body was com- 
posed at first of the best youth chosen from among his Christian 
captives. When war ceased to furnish a sufficient number of 
recruits, the subjugated Christians were required to pay their taxes 
in children, every fifth male child being demanded. 

These youth, who were generally received at the tender age of 
eight, were brought up in the Mohammedan faith, and carefully 
trained in military service. This famous body may be likened to 
the Pretorian guard at Rome, the Varangian guard of the Greek 
Emperors, or the Mamelukes of the Egyptian caliphs. 

Conquests of Bajazet (1389-1403). — Amurath was followed 
by his son Bajazet, who, by the rapid advance of his arms, spread 
the greatest alarm throughout Western Europe. The warriors of 
Hungary, Germany, and France united their armies to arrest his 
progress ; but their combined forces, numbering 100,000 men, 
were cut to pieces by the sabres of the Turks on the fatal field of 
Nicopolis, in Bulgaria (1396). 

The unfortunate issue of this terrible battle, in which had fallen 
"the flower of the Christian chivalry of Europe," threw all the 
West into a perfect panic of terror. Bajazet vowed that he 
would stable his horse in the Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome, and 
there seemed no power in Christendom to prevent the sacrilege. 

Before proceeding to fulfil his threat, Bajazet turned back to cap- 
ture Constantinople, which he believed in the present despondent 
state of its inhabitants would make little or no resistance. The 
city was invested by the Turkish hosts, and the fate of the capital 
appeared to be sealed. In vain did the Greeks call upon the 
Latin warriors for aid ; Christendom was weak from the losses at 



242 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Nicopolis, and besides was paralyzed with fear. But though no 
succor came from the Christian West, aid did come, strangely 
enough, from the Mohammedan East. 

Just at this time Tamerlane was leading the Mongols on their 
career of conquest. He directed them against the Turks in Asia 
Minor, and Bajazet was forced to raise the siege of Constantinople, 
and hasten across the Bosphorus, to check the advance in his 
dominions of these new enemies. The Turks and Mongols met 
upon the plains of Angora, where the former suffered a disastrous 
defeat, and Bajazet himself was taken prisoner. The conqueror 
treated his unfortunate rival with ungenerous barbarity, carrying 
him about with him in an iron cage. 

The battle of Angora occurred in the year 1402. It checked for 
a time the conquests of the Ottomans, and saved Constantinople to 
the Christian world for another period of fifty years. 

The Capture of Constantinople. — The Ottomans gradually 
recovered from the blow they had received at Angora. By the year 
142 1 they were strong enough to make another attempt upon 
Constantinople. The city was this time saved by the strength of its 
defenses. Another quarter of a century passed, during which time 
the Turks were busy taking possession of the remaining provinces 
in Europe of the Greek Empire, until the authority of the suc- 
cessor of Constantine was limited to the space within the walls of 
Byzantium. 

Finally, in the year 1453, Mohammed II. the Great, Sultan of 
the Ottomans^ laid siege to the capital with an army of over 
200,000 men. The walls of the city were manned by a mere hand- 
ful of Greek soldiers. After a short siege the place was taken by 
storm. Constantine XL, the last of the Greek Emperors, met death, 
as became the last representative (in the East) of the Caesars, 
sword in hand. The Cross, which since the time of Constantine 
the Great had surmounted the dome of St. Sophia, was replaced 
by the Crescent, which remains to this day. 

Thus fell New Rome into the hands of the barbarians of the 
East, 1 140 years after Constantine had made it an imperial city, 



CHECK TO THE OTTOMAN ARMS. 243 

and almost an exact millennium after the fall of Old Rome before 
the barbarians of the West. Of the 100,000 inhabitants in the 
capital at the time of the siege, 40,000 were killed and 50,000 
made slaves. As Mohammed, like Scipio at Carthage, gazed upon 
the desolated city and the empty palace of Constantine, he is said 
to have called to mind the lines of the Persian poet Firdousee : 
" The spider's curtain hangs before the portal of Cesar's palace ; 
the owl is the sentinel on the watchtowers of Afrasiab." 

Check to the Ottoman Arms. — The consternation which the 
fall of Byzantium created throughout Christendom was like the 
dismay which filled the world upon the downfall of Rome in the 
fifth century. All Europe now lay open to the Moslem barbarians, 
and there seemed nothing to prevent their placing the Crescent 
upon the dome of St. Peter's and the Tower of London. 

Various attempts were made through councils and diets to effect 
a union among the different Christian powers for the recovery of 
Constantinople, and the expulsion of the Turks from European soil. 
But times had changed since Peter the Hermit and St. Bernard 
preached the Crusades for the recovery of the holy places of 
Palestine, and the warriors of the West could not be roused for a 
united effort against the infidel intruders. So long as the crown 
of a prince was not in immediate danger, he cared but little 
whether Christian Greeks or Mohammedan Turks knelt in St. 
Sophia. 

But though no plan for united action could be concerted 
among the Christian states, the warriors of Hungary made a valiant 
stand against the Ottomans, and succeeded in checking their 
advance upon the continent, while the Knights of St. John, now 
established in the island of Rhodes, held them in restraint in the 
Mediterranean. Mohammed II. did succeed in planting the Cres- 
cent upon the shores of Italy — capturing and holding for a year the 
city of Otranto in Calabria ; but by the time of the death of that 
energetic prince, the conquering energy of the Ottomans seems to 
have nearly spent itself, and the limits of their empire were not 
afterwards materially enlarged. 



244 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

The Turks have ever remained quite insensible to the influences 
of European civilization, and their government has been a perfect 
blight and curse to the countries subjected to their rule. They 
have always been looked upon as intruders in Europe, and their 
presence there has led to several of the most sanguinary wars of 
modern times. Gradually they are being pushed out from their 
European possessions, and the time is probably not very far distant 
when they will be driven back across the Bosphorus, as their 
Moorish brethren were expelled long ago from the opposite corner 
of the continent by the Christian chivalry of Spain. 



THE TEUTONS AND THE ROMAN TOWNS. 245 



CHAPTER VI. 

GROWTH OF THE TOWNS: THE ITALIAN CITY-REPUBLICS. 

The Teutons and the Roman Towns. — The barbarians who 
overran the Roman Empire had no love for city life ; hence the 
Roman cities fared hard at their hands. In England, the Angles 
and Saxons seem to have almost destroyed them. The present 
English towns have grown up, the greater number of them, since 
the invasion, having been built anew from their foundations, often, 
however, on the old sites. A somewhat similar fate apparently 
befell the cities of Northern France. In Southern France, how- 
ever, and in Italy and Spain, they escaped destruction ; yet the 
result of the conquest everywhere was the decline of the towns in 
population and importance. The city gave place to the castle. 

Revival of the Old Towns and Founding of New Ones. — But 
just as soon as the invaders had become settled, and civilization 
had begun to revive, the old Roman towns began gradually to 
assume somewhat of their former importance, and new ones to 
spring up in those provinces where they had been swept away, and 
in the countries outside of the limits of the ancient Empire. 

The location of the new towns was determined by different cir- 
cumstances. The necessities of trade and commerce pointed out 
the sites of many of them, and formed the basis of their growth 
and prosperity. Favorable locations on the sea-coasts, upon the 
great rivers, or along the overland routes of travel, were naturally 
chosen as depots for exchanging, distributing, and forwarding the 
wares and products of the times. On such spots grew up opulent 
and powerful capitals. 

Relation of the Cities to the Feudal Lords. — When feudalism 
took possession of Europe, the cities became a part of the system. 
Each town formed a part of the fief in which it happened to be 
situated, and was subject to all the incidents of feudal ownership, 



246 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

It owed allegiance to its lord, must pay to him feudal tribute, and 
aid him in his war enterprises. 

As the cities, through their manufactures and trade, were the 
most wealthy members of the feudal system, the lords naturally 
looked to them for money when in need. Their demands and 
exactions at last became unendurable, and a long struggle broke 
out between them and the burghers, which resulted in what is 
known as the enfranchisement of the towns. 

It was in the eleventh century that this revolt of the cities against 
the feudal lords became general. During the course of this and 
the succeeding century, the greater number of the towns of the 
countries of Western Europe either bought or wrested by force of 
arms charters from their lords or suzerains. The cities thus char- 
tered did not become independent of the feudal lords, but they 
acquired the right of managing, with more or less supervision, 
their own affairs, and were secured against arbitrary and oppressive 
taxation. This was a great gain ; and as, under the protection of 
their charters, they grew in wealth and population, very many of 
them became at last strong enough to cast off all actual depen- 
dence upon lord or suzerain, and become in effect independent 
states — little commonwealths. Especially was this true in the 
case of the Italian cities, and in a less marked degree in that of the 
German towns. Respecting the fortunes of the cities in these two 
countries, we will now speak with some detail. 

Rise of the Italian City-Republics. — The Italian cities were 
the first to rise to power and importance. Several things conspired 
to secure this early and rapid development. First, the cities of 
Italy had become, under the imperial government, more perfectly 
developed as municipalities than the towns of other parts of the 
Empire. Then, they suffered less from the barbarian invaders, and 
were thus able to retain in a very perfect degree their municipal 
organization. Again, the feudal system was less perfectly developed 
in the peninsula than elsewhere, the lords being obliged from the 
very first to divide power with the cities, which never became so 
completely subjected to the nobility as did those of other coun- 



THE LOMBARD LEAGUE. 247 

tries. Finally, the small number of the barbarians in Italy forced 
the chiefs and nobles to build their castles, for the sake of greater 
security, within the walls of some city, instead of in the open 
country, which circumstance added greatly to the strength and 
importance of the towns. 

But the main cause of the prosperity and influence of the Italian 
cities was their trade with the East, and the enormous impulse 
given to that commerce by the Crusades. Venice, Genoa, and Pisa 
became immensely rich through the vast transport business thrown 
into the hands of their merchants by the crusading movement. 
And after the Crusades had ceased, the trade to which they had 
given birth still continued. The returning crusaders, bringing back 
with them a taste for Oriental customs and notions, created a great 
demand for articles of refinement and luxury, which could be sup- 
plied only by the Italian traders through their Eastern connections. 

With wealth came power, and all the chief Italian cities became 
distinct, self-governing states, with just a nominal dependence 
upon the Pope or Emperor. Towards the close of the thirteenth 
century, Northern and Central Italy was divided among about two 
hundred little city-republics. Italy had become another Greece. 
The political history of these states is very obscure, intricate, and 
uninteresting; but their social, artistic, and commercial records 
form the most brilliant pages of the annals of the Middle Ages. 

There are, however, three important matters which may be con- 
sidered as belonging to their general political history, — the for- 
mation of the Lombard League, the dissensions of the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, and the conversion of the republics into he- 
reditary principalities. We shall speak of each of these matters 
under a separate head, and then shall proceed to notice some of 
the more interesting and instructive circumstances in the separate 
commercial, social, or artistic life of the representative states of 
Venice, Pisa, Genoa, and Florence. 

The Lombard League. — The Lombard League was a union of 
the principal cities of Northern Italy, headed by Milan, for the 
purpose of resisting the pretensions of the German Emperor, who 



248 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

claimed fealty and tribute as their suzerain. The kings of Ger- 
many, it must be borne in mind, had always considered Italy as a 
fief of their empire ever since Charlemagne's conquest of the 
country and his coronation by the Pope as King of the Romans 
(800). This suzerainty was really scarcely more than nominal. 
It imposed upon the Italians little more than the payment of a 
small tribute, and the use of the Emperor's name in state docu- 
ments. Some of the German Emperors never visited Italy at all ; 
and the manner in which the Emperor was received by the Ital- 
ians when he did make a journey into this quarter of his domin- 
ions illustrates how very little like sovereign authority was his rule 
over them. Thus, so jealous were the Italians of the freedom of 
their cities, the imperial train was not allowed to establish itself 
within the city walls. The royal castle — found at each chief 
city — was always outside the city defenses, and there his majesty's 
court was accommodated during his visit. 

The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa endeavored to extend and 
strengthen the imperial authority over these Italian cities. His 
aim was to reduce them from vassals or allies to subjects — to 
make himself their emperor in fact as well as in name. Milan 
resisted. Barbarossa crossed the Alps with a large army, captured 
the rebellious city, scattered its inhabitants, and leveled its walls 
and houses to the ground. 

A confederation known as the Lombard League was now 
formed by the exiled Milanese and a large number of the cities 
of Northern Italy, for the purpose of avenging the wrongs of 
Milan and resisting the Emperor's schemes of ambition. A great 
battle was fought between the forces of the League and those of 
the Emperor at Legnano, in 11 76. The Germans suffered an 
overwhelming defeat. "This battle was memorable," says Stille, 
" because it was the first instance in the history of the Middle 
Ages in which municipalities joined together in successful resis- 
tance to one of the great sovereigns of Europe." 

In the Treaty of Constance, which was arranged in 1 183, the right 
of the cities to self-government was granted, although they were 



DISSENSIONS AMONG THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 249 

to swear fealty to the Emperor as overlord, and pay a nominal 
tribute as a token of their vassalage. 

Dissensions among the Italian Republics. — The Lombard 
League was almost the only instance of a confederation being 
effected among the city-states of Italy. Their entire history is an 
all but unbroken record of quarrels, dissensions, and wars among 
themselves. The dispute between them and the head of the Holy 
Roman Empire divided the population of the different cities into 
two great parties, — the Ghibellines, who adhered to the Emperor, 
and the Guelphs, who espoused the cause of his enemy the Pope. 
The quarrels between these rival parties kept all Italy in a perfect 
turmoil for several centuries. 

Commercial rivalry and jealousy was another source of endless 
disputes and wars among the Italian cities ; and still a third cause 
of trouble and dissension within the walls of each city was the 
presence there of the feudal lords. The streets were kept wet 
with the blood of the quarrelsome retainers of rival houses. 
Shakespeare's tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is based upon the 
feud of two such rival houses of Verona, the Capulets and the 
Montagues. 

We seem, while tracing the story of the Italian republics, to be 
following again the history of the cities of Greece. The great 
political defect in the Grecian character was an utter inability to 
broaden love of city into love of country — to raise municipal sen- 
timent into patriotism. We meet the same fault in the Italian 
character. For illustration, the Venetians had this maxim : 
u Venice first, Christians next, and Italy afterwards." 

The results to Italy of this narrow, jealous spirit were several 
centuries of dissensions and wars and of shameful subjection to 
foreign powers, — to the sovereigns of Spain, France, and Ger- 
many. French and German and Spanish soldiers were con- 
stantly plundering her cities and trampling down her harvests. 
United, Italy might easily have kept her coast against every 
enemy by way of the sea, and have so manned the passes of 
the Alps, those barriers which to Cicero seemed raised by the gods 



250 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAE 

expressly for the protection of the peninsula, that the combined 
armies of the North might have vainly attempted to storm those 
defenses. 

The Establishment of Tyrannies. — Just what happened among 
the contending republics of Greece took place in the case of the 
quarreling city-commonwealths of Italy. Their republican con- 
stitutions were overthrown, and the supreme power fell into the 
hands of an ambitious aristocracy, or was seized by some bold 
usurper, who often succeeded in making the government hered- 
itary in his family. Before the close of the fourteenth century 
almost all the republics of the peninsula had become converted 
into exclusive oligarchies or hereditary principalities. 

One thing which favored the schemes of ambitious leaders was 
the custom of the cities — a custom which became common 
among them as the military spirit declined among their trade- 
loving citizens — of employing mercenary soldiers to fight their 
battles. These hirelings were called condottieri, and were at the 
service of the highest bidder. Their captains were usually soldiers 
of fortune. Very soon the employers of these conscienceless mer- 
cenaries found themselves completely in their power. The leaders 
of the bands often betrayed the liberties of the states they had 
been hired to defend, and upon the ruins of their republican insti- 
tutions set up military despotisms. 

Again, in other cities, the heads of powerful families acquired in 
a more legitimate way — by the ascendency of wealth or genius, or 
through extended business, social, and political connections — the 
control of the government, and while preserving, as did Augustus 
and his immediate successors at Rome, all the forms of the 
republican state, ruled with as absolute an authority as did those 
same imperial usurpers. Thus it was that the famous family of 
the Medici obtained control of affairs at Florence. 

We shall now relate some circumstances, for the most part of a 
commercial or social character, which concern some of the most 
renowned of the Italian city-states. 

Venice, — Venice, the most famous of the Italian republics, had 



VENICE. 251 

its beginnings in the fifth century in the rude huts of some refugees 
who fled out into the marshes of the Adriatic to escape the fury of 
the Huns of Attila. Here, secure from the pursuit of the barba- 
rians, who were unprovided with boats, they gradually built up, on 
some low islets, a number of little villages, which finally, towards 
the close of the seventh century, coalesced to form a single city, 
at whose head was placed a ruler bearing the title of Doge, a 
name destined to acquire a wide renown. 

Throughout the ninth and tenth centuries the galleys of the 
little Republic were defending her commerce in the Adriatic 
against the Norman and Saracen corsairs, or repulsing formidable 
attacks upon her island home by the barbarian Slavonians and 
Hungarians. For the sake of protection, some Greek cities upon 
the opposite shore of the Adriatic put themselves under her gov- 
ernment. Conquests and negotiations gradually extended her 
possessions century after century, until she finally came to control 
the coast and waters of the Eastern Mediterranean in much the 
same way that Carthage had mastery of the Western Mediterra- 
nean at the time of the First Punic War. 

Even before the Crusades her trade with the East was very 
extensive, and by those expeditions was expanded into enormous 
dimensions. The sea between Italy and the ports of Egypt and 
Syria were literally covered with her transports and war-galleys. 
It will be recalled that she aided the Frank warriors of the Fourth 
Crusade in their enterprise against Constantinople, and received 
a share of the spoils, — three eighths of the conquered provinces. 
Upon this acquisition, the Doge, Henry Dandolo, assumed the 
clumsy title, "Duke of three eighths of the Roman Empire" 
(1204). 

Very soon after this the Venetian Senate gave permission to 
citizens of the Republic to make such conquests as they might be 
able in any of the islands about Greece. The conquerors were to 
bold as vassals of Venice the lauds they might win. Many adven- 
turers took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded, and soon 
many of the Grecian islands were in possession of ambitious citi- 



252 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

zens of Venice, and consequently became fiefs or dependencies of 
the Republic. 

Venice was at the height of her power during the thirteenth, 
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Her supremacy on the sea 
was celebrated each year by the famous ceremony of " Wedding 
the Adriatic " by the dropping of a ring into the sea. The origin 
of this custom was as follows. In the year 1177, one of the 
Popes — for the Pontiffs of Rome had come to think that the sea as 
well as the land was theirs to dispose of as they pleased — gave a 
ring to his friend the Doge of Venice with these words : " Take 
this as a pledge of authority over the sea, and marry her every 
year, you and your successors forever, in order that all may know 
she is under your jurisdiction, and that I have placed her under 
your dominion as a wife is under the dominion of her husband." 
The annual celebration of this ceremony was one of the most 
brilliant spectacles of the Middle Ages. 

The decline of Venice dates from the fifteenth century. The 
conquests of the Turks during this century deprived her of much 
of the territory she held east of the Adriatic, and finally the voyage 
of Vasco da Gama round the Cape of Good Hope, showing a new 
path to India, gave a death-blow to her commerce. From this 
time on the trade with the East was to be conducted from the 
Atlantic ports instead of from those in the Mediterranean. 

Genoa. — Genoa, on the western coast of Italy, was the most 
formidable commercial rival of Venice. The period of her great- 
est prosperity dates from the recapture of Constantinople from 
the Latins by the Greeks in 1261. The Genoese through jealousy 
of the Venetians, who, it will be remembered, had aided the 
Frankish Crusaders in capturing the city in 1204, and shared with 
them the provinces of the Empire, assisted Michael Paleologus in 
the recovery of the throne, and as a reward were given possession 
of some of the suburbs of Constantinople, and of other places 
along the Bosphorus, which gave them control of the entrance to 
the Black Sea. Very soon they established ports along the shores 
of the Euxine, and began to carry on a lucrative trade with East- 
ern Asia by way of that sea and the Caspian. 



PISA. 253 

The jealousy with which the Venetians regarded the prosperity 
of the Genoese led to oft-renewed war between the two rival re- 
publics. For nearly two centuries their hostile fleets contended, 
as did the navies of Rome and Carthage during the First Punic 
War, for the supremacy of the sea. 

The merchants of Genoa, like those of Venice, reaped a rich 
harvest during the Crusades. The death-blow to their prosperity 
was given by the irruption of the Mongols and Turks, and the 
capture of Constantinople by the latter in 1453. The Genoese 
traders were now driven from the Black Sea, and their traffic with 
Eastern Asia was completely broken up ; for the Venetians had 
control of the ports of Egypt and Syria and the southern routes to 
India and the countries beyond — that is, the routes by way of 
the Euphrates and the Red Sea. 

With their old trade-route obstructed by the barbarians, the 
Genoese now sought a new way to the East by sailing westward 
through the Straits of Gibraltar. The Genoese sailor Columbus 
was seeking a water-path to India, a life-long dream, when he 
found the New World. But when at last the Portuguese navigator 
Vasco da Garaa succeeded in reaching India by doubling the 
southern cape of the African continent, and Magellan had arrived 
at the same country by sailing westward and circumnavigating the 
globe, these discoveries, instead of enabling Genoa to regain the 
trade and wealth which were slipping from her hands, simply 
caused her more rapid decline, by transferring commercial suprem- 
acy from the ports of the Mediterranean to those of the Atlantic 
sea-board. 

Genoa still contains many architectural monuments, especially 
superb palaces, which bear abundant evidence of the genius of 
her artists and the wealth and magnificence of her merchant 
princes during that splendid period when the renown of the city- 
republic was spread throughout the world. 

Pisa. — Pisa, located just a little to the south of Genoa, on the 
same coast, was her early rival for supremacy in the waters of the 
Western Mediterranean. The first battle between the navies of 



254 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

the two republics was fought in 1070. Thenceforward for two cen- 
turies there was carried on an almost continuous war by the rival 
cities, which finally resulted in the complete destruction of the 
power of Pisa. 

Pisa, like Genoa, contains at the present time many monuments 
dating from the period of her commercial prosperity. Among these 
is the famous Leaning Tower, whose erection was commenced in 
1 1 74. The inclination of the structure was caused, most likely, by 
the sinking of the foundation. Pisa is built in part upon marshy 
land, and the walls of many of its buildings are thrown dangerously 
out of plumb from the same cause. The celebrated cathedral 
for which the Tower was designed as a belfry has its walls thus 
injured by the treacherous nature of the ground on which it 
stands. 

Florence. — Florence, " the most illustrious and fortunate of 
Italian Republics," although, from her inland location upon the 
Arno, shut out from engaging in those naval enterprises that con- 
ferred wealth and importance upon the coast cities of Venice, 
Genoa, and Pisa, became, notwithstanding, through the skill, 
industry, enterprise, and genius of her citizens, the great manufac- 
turing, financial, literary, and art centre of the Middle Ages. 

The woolen and silk products of her looms and the fine work of 
her jewelers were famous in all the markets of the world. Through 
her banking institutions she became the money centre of Europe 
during the Middle Ages. The list of her illustrious citizens, of 
her poets, statesmen, historians, architects, sculptors, and painters, 
is more extended than that of any other city of mediaeval times ; 
and indeed, as respects the number of her great men, Florence is 
perhaps unrivalled by any city of the ancient or modern world 
save Athens. In her long roll of fame we find the names of 
Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Macchiavelli, Michael Angelo, Leo- 
nardo da Vinci, Galileo, Amerigo Vespucci, and the Medici. 

From the tenth century up to the fifteenth the government of 
Florence was, for the greater part of the time, democratic in form. 
Occasionally, however, the city would fall into the hands of the 



FLORENCE. 255 

nobles or under the power of a usurper, but a sudden uprising of 
the people usually quickly restored the Republic. 

In no other of the Italian cities were the contentions between 
Guelphs and Ghibellines so constant, bitter, and bloody as within 
the walls of Florence. The history of the city from the twelfth to 
the fifteenth century is a most intricate, tedious, and uninstructive 
record of the interminable quarrels and fightings of the contending 
factions. The triumph of one party was usually marked by the 
massacre or banishment of the leading members of the opposing 
one. Thus it happened, through the changes of fortune, that 
many of the most illustrious citizens of Florence were, at one period 
or another of their career, sent into exile, just as at Athens, under 
the Republic, ostracism was the fate of almost every person of 
distinction. 

Yet, notwithstanding the incessant discord within her walls, 
Florence during all these times continued to grow in wealth, influ- 
ence, and fame ; and probably we should not be wrong in thinking 
that many of the illustrious men to whom the city gave birth during 
this period of strife and turmoil, owed their greatness to the seem- 
ingly adverse circumstances amidst which their lives were cast. 
Certainly the Divine Comedy would never have been written as it 
was written, had Dante not tasted the bitterness of misfortune, 
defeat, and exile. 

It was about the middle of the fifteenth century that the Medici, 
a family of merchants whom wealth had lifted to the nobility, 
secured leadership in the political affairs of Florence. At the 
outset, they veiled their really absolute power under the forms of 
the Republic ; but after a time the government became an heredi- 
tary monarchy in their family. For the greater part of the fifteenth 
century they controlled and watched over the city in a sort of 
parental way, being greatly loved, honored, and trusted by the 
Florentines. Their private fortune was " a sort of public treasury, 
freely open to learned men." 

The two most distinguished names of the house are those of 
Cosmo de Medici, who was fondly called the " Friend of the People 



256 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL 

and the Father of his Country," and Lorenzo his grandson, who, 
through the munificent patronage he extended to artists and men 
of letters, had bestowed upon him the title of " the Magnificent." 
The position which Florence held as a centre of art during the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the reputation she enjoys at 
the present day on account of her superb palaces, her magnifi- 
cent churches, and her museums and universities, are due very 
largely to the taste, discernment, and liberality of these illustrious 
princes. 

The Hanseatic League. — From speaking of the Italian city- 
republics, we must now turn to say a word respecting the free cities 
of Germany, in which country, next after Italy, the mediaeval muni- 
cipalities had their most perfect development, and acquired their 
greatest power and influence. 

When, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the towns of 
Northern Europe began to extend their commercial connections, 
the greatest drawback to their trade was the general insecurity and 
disorder that everywhere prevailed. The trader who entrusted his 
goods designed for the Italian market to the overland routes was 
in danger of losing them at the hands of the robber nobles, who 
watched all the lines of travel, and either robbed the merchant 
outright, or levied an iniquitous toll upon his goods. The plebeian 
tradesman, in the eyes of these thieving barons, had no rights 
which they were bound to respect. Nor was the way to Italy by 
the Baltic and the North Sea beset with less peril. Piratical crafts 
scoured those waters, and made booty of any luckless merchant- 
man they might overpower, or lure to wreck upon the dangerous 
shores. 

Finally, in the thirteenth century, some of the German cities, 
among which Lubeck and Hamburg seem to have been prominent, 
began to form temporary alliances for protecting their merchants 
against pirates and robbers. These transient leagues finally led to 
the formation of the celebrated Hanseatic x League, whose organi- 
zation as a political power dates from the year 1360. The con- 

1 From the old German hansa, a confederation or union. 



THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE. 257 

federation came to embrace eighty-five of the principal towns of 
North Germany. 

It organized armies, equipped navies, and exercised all the 
powers of sovereignty. It even carried on successful war against 
the kings of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and with the threat 
of war forced from Edward IV. of England important concessions 
in favor of its merchants. It thus established a sort oiimperium 
in imperio, an " empire within an empire " ; for a city, by joining 
the League, did not thereby change its relations to the German 
Emperor. The Hanse towns never became so independent of 
Imperial control as did the Italian cities of the Lombard 
League. 

In order to facilitate the trading operations of its members, the 
League established in different parts of the world factories and 
warehouses, which were placed in charge of persons vowed to 
lives of celibacy and monastic austerities. The four most noted 
centres of the trade of the Confederation were the cities of Bruges, 
London, Bergen, and Novgorod. The Flemish city Bruges 
was the intermediate station between the Italian and German 
ports, such a resting-place being necessary on account of the 
length of the voyage from the Mediterranean to the Baltic being 
too great to be performed in a single season. The establishment 
of the League at London controlled a considerable share of the 
traffic of the British Isles, much to the detriment of the English 
merchants. Bergen was the centre of the trade with Norway and 
Sweden ; while at Novgorod, in Russia, were gathered for distribu- 
tion throughout the West the products of Russia and the countries 
beyond. 

The League thus became a vast monopoly, which endeavored to 
control in the interests of its own members the entire commerce 
of Northern Europe. Naturally it awakened the animosity of 
other cities not sharing its privileges, and by its assumption of all 
the powers of a sovereign state excited the jealousy of the kings 
of Europe, who gradually annulled the charters and privileges 
they had given the League. 



258 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Among other causes of the dismemberment of the association 
may be mentioned the maritime discoveries that signalized the 
close of the fifteenth century, which disarranged all the old routes 
of trade in the north of Europe as well as in the south; the 
increased security which the advance of civilization and the form- 
ation of strong governments gave to the merchant class upon 
sea and land ; and the heavy expense incident to membership in 
the League, resulting from its ambitious projects. 

All these things combined resulted in the decline of the power 
and usefulness of the League, and prompted the withdrawal of 
one city after another from the alliance, and finally led to its 
formal dissolution in the year 1630. 

Influence of the Mediaeval Cities. — The chartered towns and 
free cities of the mediaeval era exerted a vast influence upon the 
commercial, social, artistic, political, and intellectual development 
of Europe. 

They were the centres of the industrial and commercial life of 
the Middle Ages, and laid the foundations of that vast system of 
international exchange and traffic which forms a characteristic 
feature of modern European civilization. 

Their influence upon the social and artistic life of Europe 
cannot be overestimated. It was within the walls of the cities 
that the civilization uprooted by the Teutonic invaders first 
revived. With their growing wealth came not only power, but 
those other usual accompaniments of wealth, — culture and refine- 
ment. The Italian cities were the cradle and home of mediaeval 
art, science, and literature. 

Again, these cities were the birthplace of political liberty, of 
representative government. It was the burghers, the inhabitants 
of the cities, that in England, in France, and in Germany, finally 
grew into the Third Estate, or Commons, that in all these coun- 
tries have come to hold the chief place in the government. In a 
word, municipal freedom was the germ of national liberty. 

Nor must we fail to notice the influence of the mediaeval cities 
upon the intellectual life of Europe. Extended commercial rela- 



INFLUENCE OF THE MEDIAEVAL CITIES. 259 

tions with Greek, Saracen, and pagan had precisely the same 
effect upon the trader that contact with different peoples and 
civilizations had on the intolerant and ignorant crusader. His 
curiosity was aroused, his mind liberalized, his horizon broadened. 
Thus the commercial spirit which dominated the cities contributed 
powerfully to that great intellectual movement, known as the 
Revival of Learning, which marked the latter part of the mediaeval 
period, — a movement which next claims our attention. 



260 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 

The Revival Outlined. — Long before the fall of Rome there 
was a very observable decline of the Latin intellect. Science, 
literature, philosophy, — the entire intellectual as well as political 
side of Roman civilization, — showed evidence of weakness and 
decay. Then came the inrush of the barbarians, and the countries 
that had been brought under the influence of Latin culture and 
refinement sank back into almost primitive ignorance and rude- 
ness. The lowest point of depression was touched probably in 
the seventh century : Hallam calls that the nadir of the human 
mind in Europe. 

But with Charlemagne, in the eighth century, came clear indica- 
tions of improvement, due largely to the efforts of that liberal- 
minded prince. In the following century Alfred the Great in 
England gave a fresh impulse to learning and literature. A little 
later Scholasticism arose, and with its ceaseless debates stirred and 
trained the European mind. In the thirteenth century the univer- 
sities were established, and these broadened and strengthened the 
basis of education. Meanwhile the Arabian schools in Spain were 
exerting a profound influence upon the physical sciences ; and 
later were felt the liberalizing effects of the Crusades. While 
these and various other influences, such as the revival of the com- 
mercial spirit, were at work, the languages of modern Europe were 
forming, and developing native literatures, thus paving the way for 
the rapid and secure intellectual advance of the different peoples 
of the continent. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries came 
the helpful movement known as the Italian Renaissance, a restora- 
tion of classical learning and art. Then, about the middle of the 



SCHOLASTICISM AND THE SCHOOLMEN. 261 

fifteenth century, the art of printing was perfected, and the intel- 
lectual stores of the world were placed within the reach of all who 
could profit by them. And just at the close of the period were 
made those wonderful geographical discoveries which, broadening 
the physical, widened also the mental horizon of the world. 

This awakening of the European mind after the depression and 
lethargy of the first centuries of the mediaeval period, this resto- 
ration of civilization as to its intellectual elements, is what we 
mean by the Revival of Learning. Popularly, the term is limited 
to the special outburst of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ; 
but we shall use the phrase in the comprehensive sense indicated, 
employing the term Renaissance, or more narrowly Humanism, to 
designate that enthusiasm for the classical literatures which, originat- 
ing with the Italian scholars in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
turies, was by them communicated to the students of the North. 
We thus make this restoration of classical letters simply one phase 
of the general revival of learning. What is known distinctively 
as the " Revival " ends with the Reformation, the great event of 
the sixteenth century, but ends, it must be noted, only as the 
morning ends when it merges into the fuller light of the day. 

We will now trace some of the steps by which the human mind, 
after having sunk so low through faults and misfortunes, gradually 
regained that proud position which it held in Greek and Roman 
times, and prepared itself for the efforts and achievements of the 
modern era. 



Scholasticism and the Schoolmen. 

The Origin of Scholasticism. — The Roman schools, the aim of 
which was to produce orators through the study of the classic 
authors, gradually declined with the rise of Christianity, their 
place being taken by schools attached to the cathedrals and 
monasteries, from which the pagan classics were in time naturally 
excluded. These latter schools, whose aim and spirit were wholly 
ecclesiastical, felt, of course, the depression of the barbarian inva- 



262 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

sion. Charlemagne infused new life into them, and to a certain 
extent secularized them, the new schools which he established not 
being so entirely theological in tone and spirit as the old ones. 
Thus within his own palace he set up a school in which persons 
might be trained for positions in the State as well as Church, and 
called the famous English scholar Alcuin across the Channel to 
take charge of the same. The king and all the members of the 
royal household became pupils in this palace school, in which the 
Greek and Latin classics were given a prominent place. 

Within the schools founded or restored by Charlemagne grew 
up in the course of time a form of philosophy called Scholasti- 
cism, and its expounders Schoolmen. This philosophy was a 
fusion of Christianity and Aristotelian logic. It might be defined 
as being, in its later stages, an effort to reconcile Revelation and 
Reason, faith and science. The schoolmen did not question the 
truth or soundness of the theology of the Church ; they accepted 
all the writings of the Fathers, the canons and decrees of Popes 
and Councils as unquestionably true. They did not ask, are these 
things so, but simply, how and why are they so. Thus they did 
not doubt but that the bread and wine in the sacrament were 
changed into real flesh and blood, but they sought to know the 
necessity and manner of the change ; they did not doubt the 
existence of angels, but they reasoned about the different angelic 
orders and the- mode of their existence ; they did not doubt that 
man is redeemed by the sufferings and death of Christ, but they 
asked about the necessity of the atonement and the mode of sub- 
stitution. Surely there must be a reason for everything, they 
insisted, and God has given us our reasoning faculty that we 
might search out final causes. And so with no instrument save 
the logic of Aristotle, with no knowledge of the laws, forces, or 
agencies of the universe, physical or spiritual, they fell to work 
upon the stupendous pile of dogmas and legends of the Church, 
with the purpose of reducing all to rational order and system. 
Organizing, explaining, justifying, harmonizing, putting in catego- 
ries and syllogisms — such was the work of the Schoolmen. 



FAULTS OF THE SCHOOLMEN. 263 

The Greatest of the Schoolmen. — John Scotus Erigena, an Irish 
teacher and philosopher, whom Charles the Bald, grandson of 
Charlemagne, invited to France to take charge of the palace 
school, is sometimes called the first of the Schoolmen ; but more 
generally this place is given to St. Anselm ( 1033 -i 109), an Eng- 
lish bishop. The maxim of this typical Schoolman was, " I believe 
in order that I may understand." 

But the greatest of the Schoolmen appeared in the thirteenth 
century. These were Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Thomas 
Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. Of the first two we will say a word a 
little further on, in connection with the Saracen schools. Of the 
last two, Duns Scotus, on account of the acuteness of his argu- 
ment, was called the Subtle Doctor, while Thomas Aquinas was 
named the Angelic Doctor. These famous teachers became the 
heads of rival schools of philosophy, the adherents of which were 
known respectively as Scotists and Thomists. 

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Schoolmen were 
the chief attraction of the schools and universities, which were 
crowded with students drawn from all quarters by the fame of this 
teacher or that. About the close of the fifteenth century, with the 
revival of classical learning, the Schoolmen, whose Latin was a 
barbarous jargon, and whose real knowledge of Aristotle was very 
slight, fell into contempt. The low estimate in which the followers 
of one of the greatest of the Schoolmen was held is preserved in 
our word dunce, applied to a disciple of Duns Scotus. 

Faults of the Schoolmen. — The Schoolmen busied themselves 
with the most unprofitable questions in metaphysics and theology ; 
as, " How many angels could dance at once on the point of a 
needle?" "Do angels in moving from place to place pass 
through intervening space?" " Do angels have stomachs?" 
" If an ass were placed exactly midway between two stacks of hay, 
would he ever move?" The dispute between Nominalists and 
Realists — too metaphysical a question for explanation in this 
place — distracted the schools and Church for centuries. 

But the greatest mistake of the Schoolmen was in their assum- 



264 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

ing everything taught by the Church to be true, and then attempt- 
ing to demonstrate, or justify it, to prove that all was rational and 
consistent. So they became the champions of all sorts of nonsense, 
of all the abuses, superstitions, and worthless dogmas of mediaeval 
theology, and thus, instead of leading men to the truth, simply 
bewildered and befogged them. A great part of their work, there- 
fore, was useless. Their ponderous folios are like the great pyra- 
mids of Egypt, — piles of misdirected human energy. " Our 
public libraries," says Hallam, thinking of the Schoolmen, " are 
cemeteries of departed reputation, and the dust accumulating on 
the untouched volumes speaks as forcibly as the grass that waves 
over the ruins of Babylon." 

Good Effects of the System. — But the discussions of the 
Schoolmen were not without their good results. They sharpened 
the wits of men, created activity of thought and deftness in argu- 
ment. The schools of the times became real mental gymnasia, in 
which the young awakening mind of Europe received its first 
training and gained its earliest strength. The entire scholastic 
movement, as Adams says, " was the first great step in the revival 
of learning" ; and not only so, but it was the first step in the more 
distant movement of the Reformation. The Schoolmen, it is true, 
were generally faithful champions of the Church ■ but then there 
were dangers lurking in so much thinking, and consequently we 
are not surprised to hear some of the Schoolmen teaching doc- 
trines that were quite far from being orthodox. Thus the famous 
teacher Peter Abelard (1079-1142) was accustomed to tell his 
scholars, " We should not believe unless we first understand." 

The Universities. — Closely related to the subject of Scholasti- 
cism is the history of the Universities, which, springing up in the 
thirteenth century, became a powerful agency in the Revival of 
Learning. They were for the most part expansions of the old 
cathedral and abbey schools, this transformation being effected 
largely through the reputation of the Schoolmen, who drew such 
multitudes to their lectures that it became necessary to reorganize 
the schools on a broader basis. Popes and kings granted them 



INFLUENCE OF THE SARACENS. 265 

charters which conferred special privileges upon their faculties 
and students, as, for instance, exemption from taxation and from 
the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts. The celebrated University 
of Paris was the first founded, and that of Bologna was probably 
next in order. 

The studies given most prominence in the Universities were the 
scholastic theology and philosophy, and Roman and Canon Law, 
while just the slightest attention possible was paid to Greek, He- 
brew, and the physical sciences. The science of medicine had 
not yet freed itself from the influence of magic and astrology, and 
alchemy had not yet given place to chemistry. The Ptolemaic 
theory of the universe still held sway. However, in all these mat- 
ters the European mind was making progress, was blindly groping 
its way towards the light. 

Influence of the Saracens. — The progress of the Christian 
scholars of Europe in the physical sciences was greatly accelerated 
by the Saracens, who, during the Dark Ages, were almost the sole 
repositories of the scientific knowledge of the world. A part of 
this they gathered for themselves, for the Arabian scholars were 
original investigators, but a larger share of it they borrowed from 
the Greeks. While the Western nations were too ignorant to 
know the value of the treasures of antiquity, the Saracens pre- 
served them by translating into Arabic the scientific works of 
Aristotle, the treatises on medicine by Galen, and the astronomical 
writings of the Alexandrian Greeks ; and then, when Europe was 
prepared to appreciate these accumulations of the past, gave them 
back to her. This learning came into Europe in part through the 
channel of the Crusades, but more largely, and at an earlier date, 
through the Arabian schools in Spain. Thus the Logic of Aristotle 
used by the Schoolmen was a translation from the Arabic. Syl- 
vester II., who became pope in 999, was educated in the Moorish 
schools of Spain. A not improbable legend ascribes to him the 
introduction into Christian Europe of the Arabic numerals. This 
pontiff is simply the representative of hundreds who carried scien- 
tific learning out of the Arabian schools of the peninsula to spread 
it over Europe. 



266 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

In the beginning of the thirteenth century the scientific works of 
Aristotle were translated from the Arabic, and thus first brought 
to the acquaintance of the Schoolmen. It is hardly possible to 
overestimate the stimulating and helpful influence of these and 
other scientific works from the same source, upon the awakening 
intellect of Europe. Two of the greatest scholars of the thirteenth 
century, or perhaps of all the mediaeval ages, Roger Bacon and 
Albertus Magnus, owed very much of their scientific knowledge to 
the Arabians. Roger Bacon frightened all his contemporaries by 
his marvelous knowledge of mechanics, optics, chemistry, and other 
sciences, and was shut up in a dungeon on the charge of being in 
league with the devil. He certainly was in league with the Sara- 
cen scholars, — about the same thing in the eyes of his ignorant 
and fanatical persecutors, — and from that source probably learned 
the art of making gunpowder, with the composition of which arti- 
cle he was certainly acquainted. Albertus Magnus blended in a 
strange way the study of Aristotelian logic and Arabian science. 
He made valuable discoveries in chemistry, and, like Bacon, was 
believed by his superstitious age to employ unseen and spirit 
agencies in his laboratories. 

The influence of these great Schoolmen upon the intellectual 
development of Europe was most profound. "To them," says 
a competent scholar, " modern science and civilization owe 
almost their existence." But whatever is owing to them becomes, 
it must be borne in mind, in large measure a debt to Arabian 
scholarship. 

Effects of the Crusades. — Having in a previous chapter dwelt 
on the effects of the Crusades upon the intellectual development 
of the European peoples, there is no need that we here do more 
than refer to the matter, in order that we may fix in mind the 
place of the Holy Wars among the agencies that conspired to 
bring about the Revival of Learning. The stimulating, quicken- 
ing, liberalizing tendency of these chivalric enterprises was one of 
the most potent forces concerned in the mental movement we are 
tracing. 



RISE OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES. 267 

Rise of Modern Languages and Literatures. — Between the 
tenth and the fourteenth century the native tongues of Europe 
found a voice — began to form literatures of their own. We have 
I in another place spoken of the formation and gradual growth of 
these languages. As soon as their forms became somewhat set- 
tled, then literature was possible, and all these speeches bud and 
blossom into song and romance. In Spain, the epic poem of the 
Cid, a reflection of Castilian chivalry, forms the beginning of 
Spanish literature ; in the South of France, the Troubadours fill 
the land with the melody of their love-songs ; in the North, the 
Trouveurs recite the stirring romances of Charlemagne and his 
paladins, of King Arthur and the Holy Grail ; in Germany, the 
harsh strains of the Nibelungenlied are followed by the softer 
notes of the Minnesingers ; in Italy, Dante sings his Divine Comedy 
in the pure mellifluous tongue of Tuscany, and creates a language 
for the Italian race \ in England, Chaucer writes his Canterbury 
Tales, and completes the fusion of Saxon and Norman into the 
English tongue. This formation of modern European languages 
and birth of native literatures, was one of the greatest gains in 
the interest of general intelligence ; for the Schoolmen used the 
Latin language, and their discussions and writings consequently 
influenced only a limited class ; while the native literatures 
addressed themselves to the masses, and thus stirred the universal 
mind and heart of Europe. 

The New Stimulus. — With the mind of Europe aroused and 
sharpened by the debates of the disputatious Schoolmen ; with 
France, Germany, Italy, and England filled with schools and uni- 
versities ; with the scientific stores of the past made accessible 
through the labors of Arabian scholars ; with the narrow circle of 
men's thoughts widened by the Crusades ; with the modern lan- 
guages enriched and matured by the fusion of races and the growth 
of centuries, and now developing their rare stores of mythology and 
legend into suggestive and promising literature ; with the mental 
sloth of the Dark Ages cast off, and the first steps taken in the 
Revival of Learning, we might suppose that the European intel- 



268 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

lect would now be able to make an uninterrupted advance by 
virtue of its own inherent powers and native resources, without 
any further aids or incitements from the past than such as had 
been already received. But however this may be, the intellectual 
progress of Europe received just at this time a tremendous impulse 
from the bringing to light of the long-lost treasures of the classical 
literatures, so that we are left to conjecture what would have been 
the outcome of the unaided movement. We are thus brought to 
the next great step in the Revival of Learning. 



Humanism and the Humanists. 

The Italian Renaissance. — By the Renaissance is meant that 
literary and artistic revival of classical antiquity, that " passionate 
out-going towards the ancient world," that new enthusiasm for 
Greek and Latin literature and art which, springing up in Italy 
about the beginning of the fourteenth century, culminated there 
in the fifteenth, and before the close of the same century passed 
the Alps, and spread over the countries of the North. 1 

The Renaissance subdivides itself as follows : i. The revival of 
classical learning; 2. The revival of classical art. It is with the 
first only, the intellectual and literary phase of the movement, that 
we are now concerned. This feature of the movement is called 
distinctively Humanism, and the promoters of it Humanists, so 
named because they held that the study of the classics, the literce 
humaniores, as they termed them, was the best humanizing agent, 

1 The term Renaissance is used in very different senses by different writers, 
and often with very great looseness. Colbert says : " The Renaissance was 
not a mere servile reproduction of antiquity; it was an harmonious fusion 
of the elements of Christian civilization, with the traditions of ancient taste 
and learning." Symonds says : "We use the term to denote the whole transi- 
tion from the Middle Ages to the Modern World." Others, again, mean by it 
simply the revival of the Fine Arts, resulting from the discovery of some 
antique models. Lamartine makes the essence of the movement consist in 
man's discovery of himself and the universe. 



CAUSES OF THE ENTHUSIASM. 269 

— the only means, indeed, whereby could be secured the highest 
mental cultivation. 

Causes of the Enthusiasm. — This wonderful revival of interest in 
the classical antiquities has sometimes been explained by referring 
it to an accidental discovery of some ancient manuscripts, like the 
alleged discovery of a copy of the Pandects of Justinian at Amalfi 
in 1 135, and the unearthing of some ancient sculptures, as, for 
instance, the Laocoon group, dug up in the ruins of the Bath of 
Titus during the reign of Pope Julius II. But the movement was 
not an accident. It was brought about gradually, and by many and 
conspiring causes. One line of influences may be traced as 
follows. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the growth in 
wealth and population of the city republics of Italy, and the expan- 
sion of their interests, led to a revived study of the Roman law, 
which, dealing largely with municipal government, naturally had a 
great attraction for the judges and magistrates of the Italian cities. 

From the study of the Latin jurists, scholars soon turned with 
equal zeal to the study of the Latin poets, and not without results. 
During the opening years of the fourteenth century Dante wrote 
the great poem of the mediaeval period, the Divine Corned), 
wherein, by making Virgil his guide through Hell and Purgatory, 
and by always speaking of him with loving reverence as his teacher 
and master, he gracefully acknowledges the help and inspiration 
received from the Augustan poet. 

A revived interest in the old Latin authors could not fail of 
directing attention to the Greek classics, whence the Roman 
writers drew so much of their material. Here the Italian scholars 
drank at the fountain-head of the world's literature. 

Petrarch and Boccaccio. — Dante was the forerunner of Hu- 
manism, but was not, properly speaking, a Humanist. His Divine 
Comedy is the "Epic of Medievalism." The real originator of 
the humanistic movement was Petrarch (1304-13 74). His love 
for the old Greek and Latin writers was a passion amounting to a 
worship. He often wrote love-letters to his favorite authors. In 
one to Homer he laments the lack of taste among his countrymen, 



270 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

and declares that there are not more than ten persons in all Italy 
who could appreciate the Iliad. 

Next to Petrarch stands Boccaccio (13 13-13 75) as the sec- 
ond of the Humanists. He received his inspiration, according to 
legend, at the tomb of Virgil in Naples. His theory of life was 
just the opposite of that entertained by the monks. He believed 
that this earthly existence should be regarded as a blessing, that it 
should be made a joyous thing. He would release man from the 
cloistral dungeon in which Monasticism had shut him. 

Search for Old Manuscripts. — Just as the antiquarian of to-day 
searches the mounds of Assyria for relics of the ancient civiliza- 
tions of the East, so did the Humanist ransack the libraries of the 
monasteries and cathedrals, and all the out-of-the-way places of 
Europe, for old manuscripts of the classic writers. Symonds lik- 
ens these enthusiasts to new crusaders : "As the Franks," says he, 
" deemed themselves thrice blest if they returned with relics from 
Jerusalem, so these new Knights of the Holy Ghost, seeking not 
the sepulchre of a risen Lord, but the tomb wherein the genius of 
the ancient world awaited resurrection, felt holy transport when a 
brown, begrimed, and crabbed scrap of some Greek or Latin 
author rewarded their patient search." 

Petrarch was one of the most enthusiastic searchers after these 
ancient treasures. He made many long and wearisome journeys, 
with the object of collecting manuscripts. The precious docu- 
ments were found covered with mold in damp cellars, or loaded 
with dust in the attics of monasteries. This late search for these 
remains of classical authors saved to the world hundreds of valua- 
ble manuscripts which, a little longer neglected, would have been 
forever lost. 

Libraries were founded where the new treasures might be stored, 
and copies of the manuscripts were made and distributed among 
all who could appreciate them. It was at this time that the 
famous Vatican Library was established by Pope Nicholas V. 
(144 7-1455), one of the most generous promoters of the human- 
istic movement. 



EFFECTS OF THE FALL OF THE GREEK EMPIRE. 271 

Effects of the Fall of the Greek Empire. — The reviving 
interest in the literature of ancient Greece was vastly augmented 
by the disasters just now befalling the Greek Empire. Constanti- 
nople, it will be recalled, fell before the Turks in 1453 ; but for a 
long time previous to this event the Turks had been wresting the 
provinces of the Empire one by one from the feeble hands of the 
Byzantine rulers. The inevitable fate of the capital was foreseen 
by all men of discernment long before the final catastrophe. 
From every part of the crumbling Empire scholars fled before the 
approach of the barbarians, and sought shelter in the West, espe- 
cially in Italy, bringing with them many valuable manuscripts of the 
old Greek masters, who were almost unknown in Western Europe, 
and always an enthusiasm for Greek learning. The reputation of 
these exiles for talent and scholarship led to the appointment of 
many of them to professorships in the schools and universities of 
the West. 

This great immigration of Greek scholars gave, as was natural, 
a fresh impulse to the study of Greek literature and philosophy. 
There was now a repetition of what took place at Rome upon the 
conquest of Greece in the days of the Republic. Italy is con- 
quered a second time by the genius of Greece. 

Draper points out as a matter of curious interest the exactly 
opposite effects produced by the Fall of the Old Rome and that 
of the New. The subversion of the former by the Teutons brought 
on the Dark Ages, while the capture of the latter by the Turks 
contributed powerfully to the bringing in of the Modern Era. 
But the actual results in the two cases were not so dissimilar as 
they at first seem. The overrunning of the Roman Empire in the 
West by the German invaders in the fifth century drove or con- 
fined civilization to the East, while the overrunning of the Byzan- 
tine Empire by the Turkish intruders in the fifteenth century 
drove it back to the West. Thus, as the writer to whom we have 
referred expresses it, the voyage of Columbus gave a New World 
to Europe; the irruption of the Turks, an Old World, — the Old 
World of Greek philosophy and literature. 



272 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

The manuscripts discovered by the Italian Humanists, or 
brought from the East by the Greek exiles, were now multiplied 
and scattered broadcast over Europe by the happy and timely 
invention of the art of printing from movable type, of which we 
shall speak a little further on. 

The Enthusiasm crosses the Alps. — Towards the close of the 
fifteenth century Italy became the object of French and Spanish 
ambitions, and was desolated by contentions and wars which 
proved very disastrous to the cause of the Humanists, already 
showing signs of decline. During the sixteenth century the study 
of Greek ceased almost entirely in the schools of the peninsula. 
But already the enthusiasm had infected the countries beyond the 
Alps ; and as the zeal of the scholars of the South died away, that 
of the scholars of the North created a home for the New Learning 
in the colleges and universities of Germany, France, and England. 
Greek was now added to Latin as one of the requirements in a 
liberal education, and from that day to this has maintained a 
prominent place in all our higher institutions of learning. Just 
now, indeed, the sciences are disputing the claims of both Greek 
and Latin to being the best means of mental discipline and culture, 
and some would even push the latter studies aside as educational 
agencies once valuable, but now superseded. 

In transalpine Europe the humanistic movement became 
blended with other tendencies. In Italy it had been an exclusive 
passion, a single devotion to Greek and Latin literature ; but here 
in the North there is added to this enthusiasm for the classics an 
equal and indeed supremer interest in the new-found treasures of 
the Hebrew world, the long-lost Bible, which the printing-presses 
were now giving to the peoples of Europe in their own tongues. 
So what was in the South a restoration of classical literature and 
art, a renewal of the elements of beauty and taste in the ancient 
civilizations, becomes, in the more serious and less sensuous North, 
a revival of primitive Christianity, of the ethical and religious ele- 
ments of the past. The Renaissance, in a word, becomes the 
Reformation ; the Humanist becomes the Reformer. Petrarch 



EVIL AND GOOD RESULTS OF THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL. 273 

hangs over the pages of Homer ; Luther pores over the pages of 
the Bible. One is touched by beauty ; the other is stirred by 
truth. 

Evil and Good Results of the Classical Revival.-- There were 
some serious evils inherent in the classical revival. In Italy, espe- 
cially, where the humanistic spirit took most complete possession 
of society, it was " disastrous to both faith and morals." The 
study of the old pagan writers produced the result predicted by the 
monks, — caused a renascence of paganism. 1 To be learned in 
Greek was to excite suspicion of heresy. With the New Learning 
came also those vices and immoralities that characterized the 
decline of classical civilization. Italy is corrupted by the new 
influences that flow in upon her, just as Rome was corrupted by 
Grecian luxury and vice in the days of the failing Republic. 

Again, it is urged that the attention which was given to Latin 
and Greek prevented the development of the native literatures of 
Europe. As to Italy, it is true that the national literature which 
had started into life with such promise with Dante was sacrificed 
on the altar of the new worship ; but in transalpine Europe the 
study of the ancient tongues was never so exclusive as to produce 
the disastrous effect observed in Italy. 

1 The age of the Renaissance, with its longings and superstitious fears, is well 
epitomized in the tradition of Dr. Faustus. « That legend," says Symonds, - tells 
us what the men upon the eve of the Revival longed for, and what they dreaded 
when they turned their minds toward the past. The secret of enjoyment and 
the source of strength possessed by the ancients allured them; but they believed 
that they could only recover this lost treasure by the suicide of the soul So 
great was the temptation, that Faustus paid the price. After imbibing all the 
knowledge of the age, he sold himself to the devil, in order that his thirst for 
experience might be quenched, his grasp upon the world be strengthened, and 
the ennui of his activity be soothed. His first use of this dearly-bought power 
was to make blind Homer sing to him. Amphion tunes his harp in concert 
with Mephistopheles. Alexander rises from the dead at his behest, with all his 
legionaries; and Helen is given to him for a bride. Faustus is therefore a 
parable of the impotent yearnings of the spirit in the Middle Ages, — its pas- 
sionate aspiration, its conscience-stricken desire, its fettered curiosity amid the 
crampmg limits of impotent knowledge and irrational dogmatisms." — Revival 
0/ Learning, p. 53. 



274 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

On the other hand, the benefits of the movement to European 
civilization were varied and positive. Thus, during the Middle 
Ages, the Latin language had become vulgarized in the hands of 
the monks and Schoolmen, had degenerated into a barbarous jar- 
gon, while the Greek language had been lost, and Greek philoso- 
phy perverted. The Renaissance restored to the world the pure 
classical Latin, and gave back in their purity the language and the 
philosophy of Aristotle. And in giving to the scholars of Europe 
the masterpieces of ancient literature, it gave to them the most 
faultless models of literary taste and judgment that the world has 
ever produced. The influence of these in correcting the extrava- 
gances of the mediaeval imagination, tempering the judgment, and 
forming correct literary tastes, can be distinctly traced in all the 
native literatures of Europe. Many of the most elegant of modern 
writers have acknowledged that their graces of style were caught 
from a close study of the classical masters. 

Moreover, the classical revival gave to Europe, not only faultless 
literary models, but large stores of valuable knowledge. As Wool- 
sey says, " The old civilization contained treasures of permanent 
value which the world could not spare, which the world will never 
be able or willing to spare. These were taken up into the stream 
of life, and proved true aids to the progress of a culture which is 
gathering in one the beauty and truth of all the ages." And to the 
same effect are the words of Symonds, who closes his appreciative 
review of the Italian Revival of Letters as follows : " Such is the 
Lampadephoria, or torch-race, of the nations. Greece stretches 
out her hand to Italy ; Italy consigns the sacred fire to Northern 
Europe ; the people of the North pass on the flame to America, 
to India, and the Australasian Isles." 

Printing. — One of the most helpful agencies concerned in the 
Revival of Learning, was the invention of printing from movable 
blocks, or type, — the most important discovery, in the estimation 
of Hallam, recorded in the annals of mankind. 

As is true in the case of most great inventions, the grand result 



PRINTING. 275 

of which we speak was reached by gradual approaches. The 
making of impressions by means of engraved seals or blocks seems 
a device as old as civilization. The Chinese appear to have prac- 
tised this form of printing from the very earliest times. Chaldaean 
seals have been found in large numbers, and the old Babylonian 
mounds arc full of bricks stamped with the name and title of their 
ancient builders. 

The art seems to have sprung up anew in Pkirope during the 
mediaeval period. First, devices on playing-cards were formed by 
impressions from blocks ; then manuscripts were stamped with the 
portraits of saints. The next step was to cut into the same block 
a few lines of explanatory text, — and we can readily believe that 
some of the first efforts at wood-carving needed explanation. The 
progress of the art through these initial stages is illustrated by old 
manuscripts still in existence. In time the lines increased to 
pages, and during the first half of the fifteenth century several 
entire books — ■ each, however, consisting of only a few pages — 
were produced by the block-printing method. 

The next thing to be done in order to render the invention 
really valuable was to separate the letters — to cut each character 
upon a separate and movable block. For this improvement the 
world is probably indebted to John Gutenberg of Mentz (1438). 1 

Gutenberg employed wooden types, which were clumsy and 
costly. These were soon replaced by metal types, first cut by 
hand, but afterwards formed by punches. This last improvement 
may be regarded as completing the several stages of the invention. 
The credit of substituting metal for wood in the manufacture of 
the types must be given to Schoeffer and Faust, who made the 
improvement only a few years after Gutenberg's invention (in 

i45°)- 

The new art would have been much restricted in its usefulness 
through the scarcity and expensiveness of material for books, had 
it not been for the bringing to perfection about this time of the 

1 Dutch writers claim that the honor of the invention belongs to Costar of 
Haarlem. 



276 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

art of making paper from linen rags, an art known among the 
Arabs as early, at least, as noo. This article took the place of 
the costly parchment, and rendered it possible to place books 
within the reach of all classes. 

The first book printed from movable types was a Latin copy of 
the Bible, issued from the press of Faust and Gutenberg at Mentz, 
between the years 1450 and 1455. The art spread rapidly, and 
before the close of the fifteenth century presses were busy in every 
country of Europe, multiplying books with a rapidity undreamed 
of by the patient copyists of the cloister. " In the last thirty years 
of the fifteenth century, 10,000 editions of books and pamphlets are 
said to have been published throughout Europe, the most impor- 
tant half of them, of course, in Italy ; and all the Latin authors 
were accessible to every student before it closed." — Green. The 
first book printed in Greek was published at Milan in 1476. 

It is needless to dwell upon the tremendous impulse which the 
new art gave, not only to the humanistic movement, but to the 
general intellectual progress of the European nations. Without it, 
the Revival of Learning must have languished, and the Reforma- 
tion could hardly have become a fact in history. Its instrument, 
the press, is fitly chosen as the symbol of the new era of intelligence 
and freedom which it ushered in. 



GROWTH OF THE NATIONS, ETC 211 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GROWTH OF THE NATIONS. — FORMATION OF NATIONAL 
GOVERNMENTS AND LITERATURES. 

Introductory. — The most important movement that marked 
the latter part of the Middle Ages was the grouping, in several of 
the eountries of Europe, of the petty feudal states and half- 
independent cities and towns into great nations with strong cen- 
tralized governments. This movement was accompanied by, or 
rather consisted in, the decline of Feudalism as a governmental 
system, the loss by the cities of their freedom, and the growth of 
the power of the kings. 

Many things contributed to this consolidation of peoples and 
governments, different circumstances favoring the movement in 
the several countries. In some countries, however, events were 
opposed to the centralizing tendency, and in these the Modern 
Age was reached without nationality having been found. But in 
England, in France, and in Spain circumstances all seemed to tend 
towards unity, and by the close of the fifteenth century there were 
established in these countries strong despotic monarchies. Yet 
even among those peoples where national governments did not 
appear, some progress was made towards unity through the forma- 
tion of national languages and literatures, and the development of 
common feelings, sentiments, and aspirations, so that these races 
or peoples were manifestly only awaiting the opportunities of a 
happier period for the maturing of their national life. 

This rise of Monarchy and decline of Feudalism, this substitu- 
tion of strong centralized governments in place of the feeble, 
irregular, and conflicting authorities of the feudal nobles, was a 
very great gain to the cause of law and good order. It paved the 
way for modern progress and civilization. 



278 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

In these changes the political liberties of all classes, of the cities 
as well as of the nobility, were, it is true, subverted. But though 
Liberty was lost, Nationality was found. And the people may be 
trusted to win back freedom, as we shall see. Those sturdy bur- 
ghers — the merchants, artisans, lawyers of the cities — who, in the 
eleventh century, showed themselves stronger than lords, will, in 
time, with the help of the yeomanry, prove themselves stronger 
than kings. Europe shall be not only orderly, but free. Out of 
despotic monarchy will rise constitutional, representative govern- 
ment. 

I. England. 

General Statement. — In a preceding chapter we told of the 
origin of the English people, and traced their growth under 
Saxon, Danish, and Norman rulers. We shall, in the present sec- 
tion, tell very briefly the story of their progress under the Plantag- 
enet kings, thus carrying on our narrative to the accession of the 
Tudors in 1485, from which event dates the beginning of the 
modern history of England. 

The line of Plantagenet kings began in 1154 with Henry II., son 
of Queen Matilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, and ended 
with Richard III. in 1485. The dynasty thus lasted three hun- 
dred and thirty-one years, and embraced fourteen sovereigns. 1 

The era of the Plantagenets was a most eventful one in English 
history. It was under these kings that the English constitution 

1 The name Plantagenet came from the peculiar badge, a sprig of broom- 
plant (plante de genet), adopted by one of the early members of the House. 
Following is a table of the sovereigns of the family : — 



Henry II 11 54-1 189 

Richard 1 1189-1199 

John 1199-1216 

Henry III 1216-1272 

Edward 1 1 272-1 307 

Edward II 1307-1327 

Edward III. . . . 1327-1377 

Richard II I377- J 399 



HOUSE OF LANCASTER. 

Henry IV I399-I4I3 

Henry V 141 3-1422 

Henry VI 1422-1461 

HOUSE OF YORK. 

Edward IV. ... 1461-1483 

Edward V 1483 

Richard III. . . . 1483-1485 



MAGNA CHART A. 279 

took on its present form, and those charters and laws were framed 
which are rightly esteemed the bulwark of English freedom. 
Moreover, the wars of the period were, for the most part, attended 
by far-reaching consequences, and so helped to render the age 
memorable. 

The chief political events of the period which we shall notice 
were the wresting of Magna Charta from King John, the formation 
of the House of Commons, the Conquest of Wales, the Wars with 
Scotland, the Hundred Years' War with France, and the Wars of 
the Roses. 

Magna Charta (i 215) . — Magna Charta, the " Great Charter," 
held sacred as the basis of English liberties, was an instrument 
which the English barons and clergy forced King John to sign, in 
which the ancient rights and privileges of the people were clearly 
defined and guaranteed. 

The circumstances which led up to this memorable transaction, 
narrated in the briefest way possible, were as follows : The laws 
and usages of the Anglo-Saxons carefully protected the rights and 
liberties of the people against the oppression of their rulers. The 
Norman sovereigns, as is usual with conquerors, disregarded the 
customs and institutions of the people they had subjected, and 
ruled in a very arbitrary and despotic manner. The first of the 
Plantagenet kings, themselves also of foreign race, followed in the 
footsteps of their Norman predecessors. King John (1199-1216), 
the third of the line, was as tyrannical as he was unscrupulous and 
wicked. Having quarreled with the Pope respecting the filling of 
vacant offices in the English churches, he had been excommuni- 
cated, and his kingdom placed under an interdict. We have in 
another place told how John made his peace with the Church by 
doing homage to the Pope and making England a fief of the See 
of Rome. 

This pusillanimous act awakened the greatest indignation among 
all classes throughout England ; and this feeling, added to the 
bitter resentment that had been already aroused by the insults and 
outrages which the king had heaped upon his nobles, now led to 



2S0 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

an open revolt of the barons, who were counseled and encouraged 
to this step by the patriot Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen 
Langton. Indeed, the king was supported by no class. The 
movement was an uprising of the nation, determined upon the 
recovery of their time- honored liberties. The tyrant was forced 
to bow to the storm. He met his barons at Runnymede, a flat 
meadow on the Thames a little way from Windsor, and there 
affixed his seal and name to the instrument prepared for his 
signature. 

Among the important articles of the paper were the following, 
which we give as showing at once the nature of the famous docu- 
ment, and the kind of grievances of which the people had occa- 
sion to complain : — 

" No freeman shall be seized or imprisoned, or dispossessed, or 
outlawed, or in any way brought to ruin : we will not go against 
any man nor send against him, save by legal judgment of his peers 
of the land. 

" To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right of justice. 

" No scutage or aid [save several feudal aids specified] shall 
be imposed in the realm save by the Common Council of the 
realm. " l 

Besides these articles, which form the foundation of the English 
Constitution, there were others abolishing numerous abuses and 
confirming various time-honored rights and privileges of the towns 
and of different classes of freemen. 

To secure the observance of the Charter on the part of the 
king, in whose sincerity the barons had but little confidence, John 
was forced to put the Tower and city of London in the hands of 
the nobles as a pledge, and also to allow twenty-four barons to be 
appointed as " guardians of the liberties of the realm," with the 

1 This last article respecting taxation was suffered to fall into abeyance iri 
the reign of John's successor, Henry III., and it was not until about one hun- 
dred years after the granting of Magna Charta that the great principle that 
the people should be taxed only through their representatives in Parliament 
became fully established. 



BEGINNING OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 281 

right and power of declaring war against the king should he violate 
the oath he had sworn. Thus carefully was guarded the Great 
Charter, the palladium of English liberty. 

John was beside himself with rage. " They have given me four- 
and-twenty over-kings," he exclaimed bitterly, and " flinging him- 
self on the floor, gnawed sticks and stones in his impotent rage." 

The Great Charter did not create new rights and privileges, but 
simply re-asserted and confirmed old usages and laws. It was 
often disregarded and broken by despotic sovereigns ; but the 
people always clung to it as the warrant and basis of their liberties, 
and again and again forced tyrannical kings to renew and con- 
firm its provisions, and swear solemnly to observe all its articles. 

Considering the far-reaching consequences that resulted from 
the granting of Magna Charta, — the securing of constitutional 
liberty as an inheritance for the English-speaking race in all parts 
of the world, — it must always be considered the most important 
concession that a freedom-loving people ever wrung from a tyran- 
nical sovereign. 1 

Beginning of the House of Commons (1265). — The reign of 
Henry III. (1216-1272), John's son and successor, witnessed the 
second important step taken in English constitutional freedom. 
This was the formation of the House of Commons, Parliament 
having up to this time consisted of a single House, made up of 
nobles and bishops. It was again the royal misbehavior — so 
frequently is it, as Lieber says, that Liberty is indebted to bad 
kings, though to them she owes no thanks — that led to this great 
change in the form of the English national assembly. 

Henry had become even more tyrannical than his father. He 
had violated his oath to rule according to the Great Charter, had 
filled the offices of the kingdom with foreign favorites, and, finally, 
when a terrible famine was distressing England, and grain was sent 

1 A large number of copies of the Great Charter were immediately made 
and distributed through the country. " One copy of it still remains in the 
British Museum, injured by age and fire, but with the royal seal still hanging 
from the brown, shriveled parchment." — Green. 



282 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

from Germany to be distributed among the people, the avaricious 
king had seized and sold it, and kept the money for his own use. 
The indignant barons rose in revolt, and Henry and his son being 
worsted in a great engagement, known as the Battle of Lewes 
(1264), were made prisoners. 

Simon de Montfort, a French courtier, whom Henry had 
created Earl of Leicester and given his own sister in marriage, now 
assumed control of affairs. He was, fortunately, a very different 
man from most of those foreigners whom Henry had honored with 
position and titles. He entertained the same regard and love for 
the ancient customs and laws of the English as they did them- 
selves, and was ever opposed to the king in all his cruel and 
despotic proceedings. Henry himself confessed that he feared 
Simon " more than all the thunder and lightning in the world." 

Simon de Montfort now did that which entitles him to the last- 
ing gratitude of the English people. He issued, in the king's name, 
writs of summons to the nobles and bishops to meet in Parliament ; 
and at the same time sent similar writs to the sheriffs of the differ- 
ent shires, directing them " to return two knights for the body of 
their county, with two citizens or burghers for every city and 
borough contained in it." 

Although the knights of the different shires, who found attend- 
ance at the meetings of the national assembly very burdensome, 
had in several instances before this been represented by delegates, 
so that the principle of representation was not now for the first 
time introduced in the English Constitution, still this was the first 
time when plain untitled citizens or burghers were called to take 
their place with the knights, lords, and bishops in the great council 
of the nation, to join in deliberations on the affairs of the realm. 1 

1 At first the burghers could only take part in questions relating to taxation, 
but gradually they acquired the right to share in all matters that might come 
before Parliament. It is probable that the Commons at first sat in Westminster 
Hall with the Lords, though their votes were kept distinct. But very soon (in 
the reign of Edward I.) we find them gathered in a separate chamber. See 
Hallam, Middle Ages, chap. VII. Part III. §11. 



CONQUEST OF WALKS. 283 

From this event is dated the birth of the House of Commons 
(1265). Formed as it was of knights and burghers, representa- 
tives of the common people, it was natural])- at first a weak and 
timorous body, quite overawed by the great lords, but destined 
finally to grow into the controlling branch of the British Parlia- 
ment. 

Conquest of Wales. — For more than a thousand years the 
Celtic tribes of Wales maintained among their mountain fastnesses 
an ever-renewed struggle with the successive invaders and con- 
querors of England — with Roman, Saxon, and Norman. They 
never submitted their necks to the Roman yoke, but they were 
forced to acknowledge the overlordship of some of the English 
and Norman kings. But they were restless vassals, and were 
constantly withholding tribute and refusing homage. 

Upon the accession of the Plantagenets the old struggle was 
renewed with greater fierceness than ever. It was the Welsh 
bards who, at this time, by their fiery, patriotic anthems, inspired 
the people to a last determined and gallant effort to rid their 
entire land forever of the invaders, and regain their lost liberties. 
As an illustration of the power of song, it is the story of the mar- 
tial poet Tyrtaeus and the Spartan warriors repeated. Everywhere 
the slumbering embers of Celtic patriotism were fanned into an 
uncontrollable flame. Under the lead of a line of brave chieftains, 
known as the " Lords of Snowdon," the Welsh all but shook off 
the hated yoke of the English kings. 

When Edward I. came to the English throne in 1272, Llewellyn, 
the overlord of the Welsh chiefs, with the title of Prince of Wales, 
refused to render homage to the new king. Edward led a strong 
army into the fastnesses of the country, and quickly reduced his 
rebel vassal to submission. A few years later, and the Welsh pa- 
triots were again in arms ; but the uprising was soon crushed, and 
Llewellyn, the last native Prince of Wales, was slain, and the inde- 
pendence of his race forever extinguished (1282). 

Edward adopted a conciliatory policy in dealing with the con- 
quered people. He seemed to think, however, that a little dupli- 



284 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL 

city might be harmlessly employed ; for tradition tells how, having 
promised to give them a native-born prince who could not speak 
a word of French or English, he presented to them his own infant 
son Edward, born during the campaign, in the Welsh castle of 
Caernarvon. Whether the legend be true or not, this same prince, 
when he became a young man old enough to bear arms, was made 
"Prince of Wales" ; and from that time the title has been borne 
by the eldest son of the English sovereign. 

Wars witli Scotland. 

Edward's Ambition. — With the Welsh tribes reduced to sub- 
mission, Edward turned his attention to the conquest of Scotland ; 
for it was the resolve of this ambitious king, from the very outset 
of his reign, to extend the authority of the English crown over the 
whole of the island of Britain. 

It will be necessary for us to run back a little in order to a proper 
understanding of the relations existing at this time between the 
English and Scottish kingdoms. 

How Scotland became a Fief of the English Crown. — The 
most noted of the early Scottish sovereigns are Malcolm II. 
(?-io33), who, through the gallant defense of his country against 
the Danes, deserves the title of the Alfred of the North ; Dun- 
can ( 1 033-1 039), well known by Shakespeare's semi-historical 
drama " Macbeth " ; and Macbeth (1039-1054), the murderer of 
Duncan. 

During the reign of the successor of Macbeth (Malcolm III.) 
took place the Norman conquest of England. Many of the Eng- 
lish nobility, impelled by the tyranny of the invaders, fled into 
Scotland, where they were kindly received at the court of the 
Scottish king. It should be borne in mind that by this time the 
ruling class in Scotland had adopted the speech and manners of 
the South, and become English in all save name and blood. 

W 7 illiam the Conqueror, in order to relieve his dominions of the 
constant threat of invasion by the Scots and the emigrant nobles 
who had made the northern country an asylum, led a strong 



FAILURE OF THE CELTIC LINE OF SCOTTISH KINGS. 285 

army against the Scottish king Malcolm, and forced him to swear 
fealty and do homage. 

By this transaction was revived and strengthened an old claim of 
the English — dating from the time of King Alfred's son Edward 
— to the suzerainty of the Scottish realm. A misunderstanding 
respecting this matter was the cause of many of the wars that from 
this time on to the union of the crowns of the two rival kingdoms 
in the person of James Stuart I. (in 1603) were waged by the 
sovereigns of England against the Scottish kings. The English 
always contended that the Scottish king should do homage to the 
English king for the whole of his realm, while the Scots main- 
tained that he owed fealty to him as his superior lord only for lands 
held in England. The Norman and Plantagenet kings down to the 
time of Edward I. were constantly quarreling with the Scots about 
this matter of English overlordship and Scotch vassalage. 1 

It will appear in the following paragraph how Edward secured 
the acknowledgment and confirmation of the English claim. 

Failure of the Celtic Line of Scottish Kings. — In 1285 the 
Scottish King Alexander III. died, leaving his kingdom to his 
infant grandchild Margaret, the "Maid of Norway." A happy 
solution to the disputes of the two kingdoms was now proposed 
by the marriage of the little princess with the son of Edward I. ; 
but during her passage from Norway to Scotland the child-queen, 
overcome by the rough voyage, sickened and died. Had this pro- 
posed marriage not been thus frustrated, the union of the two 
kingdoms might have been anticipated by three centuries, and all 
these three hundred years of rivalry and contention avoided. 
Thus does a seemingly trivial circumstance often give shape and 
direction to a long and momentous series of subsequent events. 

The ancient Celtic line of Scottish chiefs was now extinct. 

1 The well-known act of Richard I. whereby, in order to raise means for 
equipping the forces he led in the Third Crusade, he agreed, in return for 
the sum of 10,000 marks, to give up all claim to the overlordship of Scotland, 
simply released the Scottish king from the burden of vassalage incurred by 
William the Lion when, being in the power of the English king Henry II., he 
did homage to him in return for freedom. This did not affect the older claim. 



286 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Thirteen claimants for the vacant throne immediately arose. Chief 
among these were Robert Bruce and John Balliol, distinguished 
noblemen of Norman descent, attached to the Scottish court. 

King Edward I. of England was asked to act as arbitrator, and 
decide to whom the crown should be given. He consented to do 
so, and met the Scottish lords at Norham ; but before taking up 
the question he demanded that the Scottish nobles should 
acknowledge him as their feudal suzerain. As Edward had a 
large army at this moment on the march up through England, the 
Scotch chiefs could not do otherwise than admit his claims to the 
suzerainty of their country, and do homage to him as their over- 
lord. Edward then decided the question of the succession in 
favor of Balliol, who now took the crown of Scotland as the vassal 
of the English sovereign. 

Edward and the Stone of Scone. — Edward's unjust demands 
on the Scottish king — whose nobles he summoned, in plain viola- 
tion of feudal customs, to aid him in his foreign wars — led Balliol 
to cast off his feudal allegiance, and seek an alliance with the French 
king. Edward at once attacked the Scottish town of Berwick, and, 
by an indiscriminate slaughter of eight thousand of its inhabitants, 
struck such terror into the entire country that the gates of the chief 
cities were thrown open to him as he advanced. Balliol was soon 
in his hands, and was thrust into an English dungeon. 

Scotland now fell back as a fief, forfeited by treason, into the 
hands of Edward, and all the Scottish chieftains and nobles were 
required to swear fealty directly to the English king as their feudal 
suzerain. The two kingdoms were thus united in a single mon- 
archy. As a sign that the Scottish kingdom, even as a depen- 
dent state, had come to an end, Edward carried off to London 
the royal regalia, and with this a large stone, known as the Stone 
of Scone, upon which the Scottish kings, from time out of memory, 
had been accustomed to be crowned. A legend declared that the 
relic was the very stone on which Jacob had slept at Bethel, and 
which he afterwards anointed and set up as a memorial pillar. 
The block was taken to Westminster Abbey, and there made to 



WILLIAM WALLACE. 287 

form the seat of a stately throne-chair, which to this day is used 
in the coronation ceremonies of the English sovereigns. Upon 
the stone is this inscription: — 

" Should fate not fail, where'er this stone be found, 
The Scot shall monarch of that realm be crowned ; " 

which prophecy was fulfilled when James VI. of Scotland became 
James I. of England. 

William Wallace. — The two countries were not long united. 
The Scotch people loved too well their ancient liberties to submit 
quietly to this extinguishment of their national independence. 
Under the inspiration and lead of the famous Sir William Wallace, 
an outlaw knight, all the Lowlands were soon in determined revolt. 
It was chiefly from the peasantry — who, unlike the nobility, had 
never sworn allegiance to a foreign and hated king — that the hero 
Wallace drew his followers. With an army composed mainly of 
the stout Scotch yeomen, he defied the forces of the English near 
the city and castle of Stirling. When summoned by the English 
commander to a conference, he sent back word, " We are not here 
to treat, but to set Scotland free." In the battle which followed, 
known in history as the Battle of Stirling, the English were com- 
pletely overthrown, and W'allace assumed the title of "Guardian of 
the Realm." 

The success of the rebel chieftain roused Edward to an un- 
wonted effort for the rescue of his threatened authority in Scot- 
land. He marched into the country at the head of the largest 
army he had ever gathered, and in the battle of Falkirk inflicted a 
terrible defeat upon the patriot forces (1298). Wallace escaped 
from the field, but only to fall through treachery into Edward's 
hands, and be condemned to death as a traitor. His head, 
garlanded with a crown of laurel, was exposed on London Bridge. 

The romantic life of Wallace, his patriot services, his heroic 
exploits, and his tragic death, at once lifted him to the place which 
he has ever since held, as the national hero of Scotland. 

Robert Bruce. — The struggle in which Wallace had fallen was 



288 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

soon renewed by the almost equally famous hero Robert Bruce 
(grandson of the Robert Bruce mentioned on p. 286), who was 
the representative of the nobles, as Wallace had been of the com- 
mon people. The Scottish chiefs rallied at his call, and in 1306 
he was crowned King of Scotland. Edward immediately set out 
to reconquer the kingdom ; but the monarch was now old and 
feeble, and, overcome by the hardships of the march, he died just 
as he touched the borders of Scotland (1307). 

In the death of Edward the English people lost one of their 
greatest and best-beloved sovereigns. " He was," says Green, 
" the first English king since the Conquest who loved his people 
with a personal love, and cared for their love in return." He so 
improved the laws of the realm, and made such great and benefi- 
cent changes in the administration of justice, that he is often called 
the " English Justinian." But with all his chivalric and admirable 
qualities, he was imperious, harsh, and sometimes cruel. He 
inspired fear rather than that love which he is said to have coveted. 
A subject, entering his presence with a petition, fell dead at 
his feet, just from sheer fright. His treatment of his Jewish sub- 
jects, whom he drove from his kingdom, illustrates how admirably 
he could act the part of a bigot and tyrant. 

Edward II., notwithstanding he had promised his dying father 
that he would push on the war against the Scots, abandoned the 
enterprise, and turned back into England, bearing with him the 
body of the dead king, which the sturdy old warrior had charged 
his son to carry in just the opposite direction — at the head of the 
army, as he marched against the foe. 

The English barons now began a struggle with their new king ; 
and Bruce, taking advantage of Edward's inactivity and troubles, 
aroused the Scots to drive the British from their land. Foremost 
in every fight and exploit was the hero Bruce himself, who per- 
formed prodigies of valor, which lived long in Scottish legend and 
song. 

The Battle of Bannockburn (1314). — For several years the 
Scottish cause seemed desperate. Bruce and his faithful com- 



7 'HE /!. I 7 • 7 7. E < > /•' BANNOi 'A ' B I 'A'. \ \ 289 

panions passed the lives of outlaws among the rocky fastnesses of 
the country. But at length fortune came to their side. By strat- 
agem, surprise, and desperate fighting, the English soldiers were 
crowded out of city after city, and fortress after fortress, until al- 
most all Scotland was in the hands of Bruce, who was now formally 
accepted by the people as their true and lawful sovereign. 

When, finally, Stirling, the last place of importance still held by 
English troops, was besieged, Edward bestirred himself. With an 
army of 30,000 horsemen and a large body of foot, he hurried 
north and met the army of Bruce just a little way from Stirling, 
drawn up on a plain traversed by a little stream, called the Ban- 
nock burn, 1 whence the name of the battle that there took place. 

An incident of the evening preceding the battle seemed to fore- 
shadow its issue. Bruce was riding in front of his lines, when an 
English knight suddenly bore down upon him. But Robert skill- 
fully turned aside the lance of his assailant, and then with one 
terrific blow of his battle-ax cleft his skull. The Scots accepted 
this as a good omen, while the English soldiers interpreted it as 
meaning to them defeat and death. 

In the early morning the battle was joined. The charge of the 
English knights was broken on the solid squares of the Scotch 
yeomanry, and their ranks thrown into complete disarray. In their 
flight from the field thousands were plunged headlong into pits 
with which the Scots had protected their flanks. Edward himself 
escaped, but the larger number of his knights were made prison- 
ers, and most of his foot soldiers slain in their flight. It was the 
most appalling disaster that had befallen the arms of the English 
people since the memorable defeat of Harold at Hastings. 

The independence of Scotland really dates from the great vic- 
tory of Bannockburn, but the English were too proud to acknowl- 
edge it until fourteen years more of war. Finally, in the year 1328, 
the young king Edward III. gave up all claim to the Scottish 
crown, and Scotland, with the hero Bruce as its king, took its place 
as an independent power among the nations of Europe. 

1 Burn is Scotch for brook. 



290 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

The independence gained by the Scotch at Bannockburn was 
maintained for nearly three centuries, — until 1603, — when the 
crowns of England and Scotland were peacefully united in the 
person of James Stuart the Sixth of Scotland. During the greater 
part of these three hundred years the two countries were very 
quarrelsome neighbors. 

The Hundred Years' War (1336-1453). 

Origin of the War. — The Scottish war, which ended so disas- 
trously for England, was one of the causes which led to the long 
and wasteful war between England and France known in history 
as the Hundred Years' War. This struggle was a most eventful 
one, and its effects upon both England and France so important 
and lasting as to entitle it to a prominent place in the records of 
the closing events of the Middle Ages, Freeman likens the con- 
test to the Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece ; and Hallam 
says that since the fall of Rome there had been no war among 
European nations " so memorable as that of Edward III. and his 
successor against France, whether we consider its duration, its 
objects, or the magnitude and variety of its events." 

We said that the war with Scotland was one of the things that 
led up to this war. All through that struggle, France, as the old 
and jealous rival of England, was ever giving aid and encourage- 
ment to the Scotch rebels. Then the Duchy of Guienne in 
France, for which the English king did homage to the French 
sovereign as overlord, was a source of constant dispute between 
the two countries. Furthermore, upon the death of Charles IV., 
the last of the Capetian line, Edward III. laid claim, through his 
mother Isabel, daughter of Philip the Fair, to the French crown, 
in much the same way that William of Normandy centuries before 
had laid claim to the crown of England. The claim had no 
real basis, for according to the Salic law females were excluded 
from the French throne, and so of course could transmit no title 
to another person. It suited Edward's ambition, however, to rea- 



THE BATTLE OF CRECY. 291 

son otherwise ; and so when the peers of France gave the crown 
of the last Capetian to Philip of Valois, the cousin of the dead 

Charles IV., Edward, ignoring entirely their action, impudently 
assumed the royal arms and title of France, and as soon as he 
could disengage his hands from Scottish affairs, in which he had 
been meddling, began preparations for making good his claim by 
force. 

Thus rivalries, jealousies, and ambitions plunged the two nations 
into a war which was kept up — with many interruptions, of course — 
for more than a hundred years. 

The Battle of Crecy (1346). — The first great combat of the 
long war was the famous battle of Crecy. Edward had invaded 
France with an army of 30,000 men, made up largely of English 
bowmen, and had penetrated far into the country, ravaging as he 
went, when he finally halted, and faced the pursuing French army 
near the village of Crecy, where he inflicted upon it a most terri- 
ble defeat. 1,200 knights, the flower of French chivalry, and 30,000 
foot-soldiers lay dead upon the field. 

The great battle of Crecy is memorable for several reasons. It 
was here that cannons were first used in open battle, though some 
time before this rude artillery had been employed by the Spanish 
Moors in siege operations. The guns used at Crecy were very 
clumsy affairs, and were described by a French writer as engines 
"which, with fire, threw little iron balls to frighten the horses." 

It was on this field, too, that the eldest son of Edward III., 
known, from the color of the armor he wore, as the Black Prince, 
earned his spurs, the symbol of knighthood, and a fame which the 
English have loved to keep green. This favorite prince was only 
sixteen years of age, but his father, notwithstanding, with a confi- 
dence in the temper and judgment of the boy which the event 
showed was not misplaced, entrusted him with the command of 
one of the main divisions of the army. The king himself took no 
active part in the battle, but watched the fight from an old wind- 
mill which overlooked the field. In the midst of the battle a mes- 
senger came in hot haste to the king, beseeching aid for the 



292 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

prince, who, lie represented, was hard pressed by the enemy. 
" Do not send to me so long as my son lives ; let the boy win his 
spurs ; let the day be his," was Edward's only reply to the en- 
treaty. And the young prince won both his spurs and the day. 

The battle of Crecy also derives a certain interest from the fact 
that there Feudalism and Chivalry received their death-blow. 
The yeomanry of England there showed themselves superior 
to the chivalry of France. " The lesson which England had 
learned at Bannockburn she taught the world at Crecy. The 
whole social and political fabric of the Middle Ages rested on a 
military base, and its base was suddenly withdrawn. The churl 
had struck down the noble ; the bondsman proved more than a 
match, in sheer hard fighting, for the knight. From the day of 
Crecy, Feudalism tottered slowly but surely to its grave." The 
battles of the world were hereafter to be fought and won, not by 
mail-clad knights with battle-ax and lance, but by common foot- 
soldiers with bow and gun. 

The death of the blind king John of Bohemia, Philip's ally, who 
fell with the chivalry of France on the fatal field, added another 
incident to the record of the memorable day. The veteran war- 
rior, when he learned that the battle was going hard with the 
French, ordered his companions to fasten his horse's bridle to 
theirs, and lead him into the thickest of the fight, where he and 
his faithful nobles fell dead together. The old king's crest and 
motto, which consisted of a triple ostrich plume with the legend 
Ich Dien, " I serve," were adopted by the Prince of Wales, and 
from that day to this have been worn by his successors. 

The Capture of Calais. — From the field of Crecy Edward led 
his army to the siege of Calais, an important seaport on the Chan- 
nel, whence issued many of the pirate ships that had long troubled 
English commerce. At the end of a year's siege the city, reduced 
to the verge of starvation, fell into the hands of the English. Ed- 
ward, though greatly angered at the obstinate resistance he had 
met, promised to spare the inhabitants of the place on condition 
that six of the leading citizens should be given up to him for such 



THE BATTLE OF POITIERS. 293 

punishment as he might sec fit to inflict. Six men were found 
who voluntarily devoted themselves to Edward's rage, and with 
halters about their necks were led into his presence. The king 
was on the point of ordering them all to be put to death, when his 
good queen, Philippa, throwing herself before her lord, besought 
the lives of the burghers for her sake. Edward yielded to her 
gentle prayer, and the men were released, and sent back to the 
(it\, bearing many tokens of the queen's kindness. 

The capture of Calais was a very important event for the Eng- 
lish, as it gave them control of the commerce of the Channel, and 
afforded a convenient landing-place for their expeditions of inva* 
sion. The French citizens were driven out of the place, and it 
was peopled with English immigrants. The port remained in the 
hands of the English a century and more after the close of the 
Hundred Years' War — until the reign of Queen Mary. 

The Battle of Poitiers (1356). — The terrible scourge of the 
" Black Death," which desolated all Europe about the middle of 
the fourteenth century, caused the contending nations for a time 
to forget their quarrel. But no sooner had a purer atmosphere 
breathed upon the continent than their minds were again turned 
to war, and the old struggle was renewed with fresh eagerness. 

Edward planned a double invasion of France. Fie himself led 
an army through the already wasted provinces of the North, while 
the Black Prince ravaged with another the fields of the South. As 
the Prince's army, numbering about 8,000 men, loaded with booty, 
was making its way back to the coast, it found its path, near 
Poitiers, obstructed by a French army of 50,000, led by King John, 
the successor of Philip. A battle ensued which proved for the 
French a second Crecy. The arrows of the English bowmen 
drove them in fatal panic from the field, which was strewn with 
11,000 of their dead. King John and his son Philip were taken 
prisoners, but, much to the credit of their generous conqueror, 
were treated like honored guests in the tent of the Black Print e. 

John was held prisoner in England for three years, during which 
time France was distressed by fresh invasions of the English and 



294 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

by revolts of the peasantry, whom the ravages and burdens of 
incessant war had driven to desperation. Finally, by the Treaty of 
Bretigny (1360), the French king was set at liberty upon payment 
of an enormous ransom, and the promise that he would cease en- 
deavoring to stir up the Scots against the English. By the same 
treaty Edward was to keep possession of the Duchy of Aquitaine 
and some other provinces, not, however, as a fief from the French 
king, in which way he had hitherto held his lands in France, but 
in full sovereignty. In return for John's promise to let the Scots 
alone, he agreed to cease scheming with the Flemings against 
France. 

Battle of Agincourt (1415). — For half a century after the 
Peace of Bretigny, during the reigns of the English kings 
Richard II. and Henry IV., the war was practically suspended. 
But while Henry V. was reigning in England, France was unfortu- 
nate in having an insane king, Charles VI. ; and Henry, taking 
advantage of the disorder into which the French kingdom naturally 
fell under these circumstances, invaded the country with a powerful 
army, defeated the French in the great Battle of Agincourt (1415), 
and five years later concluded the Treaty of Troyes, in which, so 
discouraged had the French become, a large party agreed that 
the crown of France should be given to him upon the death of 
Charles. 

Joan of Arc. — But patriotism was not yet wholly extinct among 
the French people. There were many who regarded the conces- 
sions of the Treaty of Troyes as not only weak and shameful, but 
as unjust to the Dauphin Charles, who was thereby disinherited, 
and they accordingly refused to be bound by its provisions. Con- 
sequently, when the poor insane king died, the terms of the treaty 
were not carried out, and the war dragged on. The party that 
stood by their native prince, afterwards crowned as Charles VII., 
were at last reduced to most desperate straits. A great part of 
the country was in the hands of the English, who were holding in 
close siege the important city of Orleans. 

But the darkness was the deep gloom that precedes the dawn. 



EFFECTS OF THE WAR UPON ENGLAND. 295 

A better day was about to rise over the distressed country. A 
strange deliverer now appears, — the famous Joan of Arc, Maid of 
Orleans. This young peasant girl, with imagination all aflame 
from brooding over her country's wrongs and sufferings, seemed to 
see visions and hear voices, which bade her undertake the work of 
delivering France. She was obedient unto the heavenly visions. 

The warm, impulsive French nation, ever quick in responding 
to appeals to the imagination, was aroused exactly as it was stirred 
by the voice of the preachers of the Crusades. Religious enthusi- 
asm now accomplished what patriotism alone could not do. 

Received by her countrymen as a messenger from Heaven, the 
maiden kindled throughout the land a flame of enthusiasm that 
nothing could resist. Inspiring the dispirited French soldiers with 
new courage, she forced the English to raise the siege of Orleans 
(from which exploit she became known as the Maid of Orleans), 
and speedily brought about the coronation of Prince Charles at 
Rheims (1429). Shortly afterward she fell into the hands of the 
English, and was condemned and burned as a heretic and witch. 

But the spirit of the Maid had already taken possession of the 
French nation. From this on, the war, though long continued, 
went steadily against the English. Little by little they were pushed 
back and off from the soil they had conquered, until, by the mid- 
dle of the fifteenth century, they were driven quite out of the coun- 
try, retaining no foothold in the land save Calais, which place they 
managed to retain for about a century after their expulsion from 
the other parts of the country. 

Thus ended, in 1453, the very year which saw Constantinople 
fall before the Turks, the Hundred Years' War. 

Effects of the War upon England. — England suffered less from 
the protracted war than France, because the latter country was 
made the battle-field of the contending armies ; so that while its 
harvests were being trampled down, and its villages sacked and 
burned by marauding bands, the fields and towns of England 
remained secure from these, the worst evils of war. 

Nor was it a small advantage to England to have her turbulent 



296 SECOND PERIOD. ■>- THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

nobles out of the country. The employment of this restless ele- 
ment beyond the limits of the island gave the land unusual quiet. 
Yet the years of the war were years of great anxiety, burden, and 
suffering. "No age of our history," says Green, "is so sad and 
sombre as the age which we traverse from the third Edward to 
Joan of Arc." 

But the lasting and important effects of the war were the en- 
hancement of the power of the Lower House of Parliament, and 
the awakening of a national spirit and feeling. The maintaining 
of the long and costly quarrel called for such heavy expenditures 
of men and money that the English kings were made more de- 
pendent than hitherto upon the representatives of the people, who 
were careful to make their grants of supplies conditional upon the 
correction of abuses or the confirming of their privileges. In a 
word, the war served to make the Commons a power in the English 
government. 

Again, as the war was participated in by all classes alike, so that 
the commons as well as the nobility were stirred by its movements 
and interested in its issues, the great victories of Crecy, Poitiers, 
and Agincourt aroused a national pride, which led to a closer 
union between the different elements of society. Normans and 
English, enlisted in a common enterprise, thrilled by similar sen- 
timents and sympathies, were fused by the ardor of a common 
patriotic enthusiasm into a single people. The real national life 
of England dates from this time. 

The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485). 

Causes of the Quarrel. — The Wars of the Roses is the name 
given to a long, shameful, and selfish contest between the adhe- 
rents of the Houses of York and Lancaster, rival branches of the 
royal family of England. The strife was so named because the 
Yorkists adopted as their badge a white rose and the Lancas- 
trians a red one. 

One thing which made the English nobles so ready to plunge 
into this civil conflict was the disastrous ending of the Hundred 



CHIEF BATTLES OF THE WAN. 297 

Years' War, and their consequent expulsion from the immense 
estates which they had acquired in France, chiefly by robbery 

and conquest. Stripped of their foreign possessions, and en- 
cumbered by luxurious habits fostered during several generations 
of fictitious prosperity, they found it irksome to retrench their 
expenses to meet their altered incomes, and were thus ever ready 
to take part in contentions for supremacy among themselves. 

The King-Maker. — The most prominent figure of this turbu- 
lent period, which covers about one generation, is that of the 
famous Earl of Warwick, whose commanding influence earned for 
him the title of " King-maker." Since the time of the Earl of 
Godwin there had perhaps no one arisen among the baronage 
who was so admired and beloved by the people as he. Thirty 
thousand persons, it is said, lived upon his different estates. 
When he journeyed about the country he was attended by hun- 
dreds of retainers, all wearing his livery and badge. 

At first the great Earl rendered eminent service to the House 
of York; but King Edward, who owed his crown to Warwick, hav- 
ing offended him, he cast his influence upon the side of the Lan- 
castrians, and actually drove Edward out of the island. The king, 
however, quickly returned with an army, and crushed his danger- 
ous subject, the Earl himself being killed in an encounter known 
as the battle of Barnet (1471). 

The Earl of Warwick is often spoken of as the " Last of the 
Barons." We may, perhaps, rightly regard him as the last promi- 
nent representative of the feudal aristocracy of England, for the 
unhappy strife in which he fell accomplished, as we shall notice in 
a moment, the almost utter ruin of the proud baronage to which 
he belonged. 

Chief Battles of the War. —The three battles of the war 
which it is most important for us to keep in memory were those 
of St. Alban (1455). of Towton Field (1461), and of Bosworth 
Field (1485). The first marks the commencement of the strug- 
gle. The second was the most terrible battle fought in England 
after that of Hastings. More than 100,000 men were 



298 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

and the Lancastrians, who were defeated, left over 20,000 dead 
upon the field. The third battle marks the close of the war. In 
this fight King Richard III., the last of the House of York, was 
overthrown and slain by Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond, who 
was crowned on the field with the diadem which had fallen from 
the head of Richard, and saluted as King Henry VII., the first of 
the Tudors. 

The Effects of the War. — The most important result of the 
Wars of the Roses was the ruin of the baronage of England. One 
half of the nobility were slain. Those that survived were ruined, 
their estates having been wasted or confiscated during the progress 
of the struggle. Not a single great house retained its old-time 
wealth and influence. The war marks the final downfall of Feu- 
dalism in England. 

But the miseries and evils of the war, contrary to what is usually 
the case in such contentions, were, for the most part, confined to 
those whose ambition and selfishness began and kept up the quar- 
rel. It was the aristocracy who were the principal sufferers, the 
lives and property of the peasantry and townspeople being gener- 
ally respected by both parties. The greater part of the endless 
battles and skirmishes were fought by the barons and their re- 
tainers. The people, that is, the peasants and burghers, only 
appear as actual participators in the single great battle of Towton 
Field. So during the period covered by the war, in spite of the 
havoc and ruin that were being wrought among the nobility, the 
trade and manufactures of the country were constantly improving 
and expanding. 

The second result of the struggle sprang from the first. This 
was the great peril into which English liberty was cast by the ruin 
of the nobility. It will be recalled that it was the barons who 
forced the Great Charter from King John, and who kept him and 
his successors from reigning like absolute monarchs. Now that 
once proud and powerful baronage were ruined, and their confis- 
cated estates had gone to increase the influence and patronage of 
the king, who, no longer in wholesome fear of Parliament, for the 



GROW J II OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 299 

Commons were as yet weak and timid, did pretty much as he 
pleased, and became insufferably oppressive and tyrannical ; rais- 
ing taxes, for instance, without the consent of Parliament, and im- 
prisoning and executing persons without due process of law. For 
the hundred years following the Wars of the Roses the government 
of England was rather an absolute than a limited monarchy. In a 
word, upon the ruins of the baronage was erected a royal despot- 
ism. Not until the Revolution of the seventeenth century did the 
people, by overturning the throne of the Stuarts, recover their lost 
liberties. 

Growth of the English Language and Literature. 

The Language. — From the Norman Conquest to the middle 
of the fourteenth century there were in use in England three 
languages : Norman French — a dialect quite different from the 
pure Parisian French — was the speech of the conquerors and the 
medium of polite literature ; Saxon, or Old English, was the tongue 
of the conquered people ; while Latin was the language of the 
laws and records, of the church services, and of the works of the 
learned. 

Modern English is the old Saxon tongue worn and improved 
by use, and enriched by a large infusion of Norman-French 
words, with less important additions from the Latin and other 
languages. It took the place of the Norman-French in the courts 
of law about the middle of the fourteenth century. At this time 
the language was broken up into many dialects, and the expression 
" King's English " is supposed to have referred to the standard 
form employed in state documents and in use at court. 

Effect on English Literature of the Norman Conquest. — The 
blow that struck down King Harold and his brave thanes on the 
field of Hastings silenced for the space of about a century the 
voice of English literature. The tongue of the conquerors be- 
came the speech of the court, the nobility, and the clergy ; while 
the language of the despised English was. like themselves, crowded 
out of every place of honor. But when, after a few generations, 



300 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

the down-trodden race began to re-assert itself, English Literature 
emerged from its obscurity, and, with an utterance somewhat 
changed, — yet unmistakably the same voice, — resumes its inter- 
rupted lesson and its broken song. 

Chaucer (i328?-i40o). — Holding a position high above all 
other writers of early English is Geoffrey Chaucer. He is the first 
in time, and, after Shakespeare, perhaps the first in genius among 
the great poets of the English-speaking race. He is reverently 
called the " Father of English Poetry." 

Chaucer stands between two ages, the mediaeval and the mod- 
ern. He felt not only the influences of the age of Feudalism 
which was passing away, but also those of the new age of learning 
and freedom which was dawning. It is because he was so sensi- 
tive to these various influences, and reflects his surroundings so 
faithfully in his writings, that these are so valuable as interpreters 
of the period in which he lived. 

Chaucer's greatest and most important work is his Canterbury 
Tales. The poet represents himself as one of a company of pil- 
grims who have set out on a journey to the tomb of Thomas a 
Becket, at Canterbury. The persons, thirty-two in number, mak- 
ing up the party, represent almost every calling and position in 
the different classes of English society. Thus there is a knight, a 
nun, a monk, a merchant, a parson, a vender of indulgences, a 
cook, a ploughman, a country gentleman, several wealthy tradesmen, 
and various other persons. 

To relieve the tedium of the journey, for our pilgrims think that 
" mirth is none to ride by the way dumb as a stone," it is arranged 
that each person shall in turn entertain the company with stories, 
two on the way out and two on the return. It is these tales — 
only about twenty of which were finished — together with a pro- 
logue containing a description of the different members of the com- 
pany, that make up the work. The prologue is the most valuable 
part of the production. Here as in a gallery we have shown to 
us faithful portraits of our ancestors of the fourteenth century. 

Often a single line, illuminated by the poet's genial humor, 



PIERS PLOUGHMAN. 301 

makes a surprising revelation of the manners, ideas, or practices 
of the times. Thus Chaucer shows us the mail-clad "gentil 
knight," " lately come from his mage" (adventure), and we learn 
that chivalry has not yet expired. He tells us of the prioress, 
" simple and coy," who speaks French of the " scole of Stratford 
atte Bowe, for Frensch of Parys was to hire unknown," and we 
get a hint of the difference between the French (Norman) spoken 
in the island of Britain and that on the Continent ; and when he 
further assures us that she " ne wette hire fyngres in hire sauce 
deepe," and "hire overlippe wypede sche so clene that in hire 
cuppe was no firthing sene of greece, whan she dronken hadde 
hire draughte," we infer that knives and forks are not yet com- 
mon, and that a single cup is made to serve an entire company 
by being passed from lip to lip. Again, when the poet says of 
the monk, " ful many a deynte hors hadde he in stable and grey- 
houndes he hadde swifte as fowel in flight," we find out something 
of the habits of the hunting ecclesiastics of Chaucer's times : 
when he introduces to us the " doctour of phisik " as a person 
"grounded in astronomy e," we learn that astrology yet rules the 
science of medicine ; and when he describes the pardoner as 
having his wallet " bret-ful of pardouns come from Rome al 
hoot," we can guess how the age is beginning to think about the 
sale of indulgences. 

Piers Ploughman (i 362-1 399). — The genial Chaucer shows 
to us the pleasant, attractive side of English society and life ; Wil- 
liam Langlande, another writer of the same period, in a series of 
poems designated as the Vision, the Creed, and the Complaint of 
Piers the Ploughman, lights up for us the world of the poor and 
the oppressed. 

These poems quiver with sympathy for the hungry, labor-worn 
peasant, doomed to a life of weary routine and hopelessness, 
despised by haughty lords and robbed by shameless ecclesiastics. 
The long wars with France had demoralized the nation : " it was," 
says Green, "an age of shame and suffering such as England had 
never known." Occasional outbursts of wrath against the favored 



302 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

classes are the mutterings of the storm soon to burst upon the 
social world in the fury of the Peasant Revolt and upon the 
religious world in the upheavals of the Reformation. 

Wycliffe and the Reformation (132 4- 13 84). — Foremost among 
the reformers and religious writers of the period under review was 
Wycliffe, " the Morning Star of the Reformation." This bold 
reformer attacked first the practices and then the doctrines of the 
Roman Catholic Church. He gave the English people the first 
translation of the entire Bible in their native tongue. There was 
no press at this time to multiply editions of the book, but by 
means of manuscript copies it was widely circulated and read. 
Its influence was very great, and from its appearance may be 
dated the beginning of the Reformation in England. 

Wycliffe did not escape persecution in life, nor were even his 
bones permitted to rest in peace. In 141 5 the Council of Con- 
stance, — the assembly that condemned to the stake Huss and 
Jerome, — having pronounced his doctrines heretical, ordered that 
his body be taken from its tomb and burned. This was done, 
and the ashes were thrown into a neighboring stream called the 
Swift. " The Swift conveyed them into the Avon, the Avon into 
the Severn, the Severn into the narrow seas, and they into the 
main ocean ; and thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of 
his doctrine, which is now scattered over all the world." 

The followers of Wycliffe became known as " Lollards " (bab- 
blers), a term applied to them in derision. They became very 
numerous, and threatening by their excesses and imprudent zeal 
the peace of the state, they were finally suppressed by force ; and 
thus through their unworthy advocacy the great revolution was 
delayed for a century or more — until another leader appeared in 
the person of the monk of Wittenberg. 

Caxton and the Printing Press (1412-1491). — The great 
religious movement referred to in the preceding paragraph, and 
which during the sixteenth century transformed the face of Eng- 
land, was hastened here by the introduction of printing into the 
island by William Caxton, in the fifteenth century. The first work 



BEGINNING OF THE FRENCH KINGDOM. 303 

which appeared from his press was entitled the Game of Chess 
(1474). He also printed Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and almost 
everything else worth reproducing that then existed in the English 
language, besides various works from the Latin and French. Cax- 
ton was an author and translator as well as a printer. 

The eagerness with which the books which fell from Caxton's 
press were seized and read by all classes, indicates the increasing 
activity and thoughtfulness of the public mind. Manifestly a new 
day — one to be filled with intellectual and moral revolutions — 
was breaking over the land of Alfred and of Wycliffe. 



II. France. 

Beginning of the French Kingdom. — The kingdom of France 
begins properly with the accession of the first of the Capetian 
rulers, late in the tenth century. The Merovingian and Carolin- 
gian kings were, as has been already seen, simply German princes 
ruling in Gaul. 

The Capetians held the throne for more than three centuries, 
when they were followed by the Valois kings, the last of whom 
gave way to the first of the Orleans sovereigns in 1498, which 
date may be allowed to mark the beginning of modern French 
history. 

We shall now direct attention to the most noted of the sover- 
eigns of these two mediaeval Houses, the Capetian and Valois, and 
narrate very briefly the most important transactions of the period 
covered by the two dynasties. Our aim will be to give prominence 
to those matters which concern the gradual consolidation of the 
French monarchy. 



France under the Capetians (987-1328). 

General Statement. — The Capetian dynast}- takes its name 
from Hugh Capet, Duke of Francia, the first of the line. It em- 



304 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

braced fifteen kings, whose united reigns spanned a space of 
three hundred and forty-one years. 1 

The first Capetian king differed from his vassal counts and dukes 
simply in having a more dignified title ; his power was scarcely 
greater than that of many of the lords who paid him homage as 
their suzerain. The fourth king of the line (Philip I.) confessed 
that he had grown gray while trying to capture a castle which 
stood within sight of Paris ; and evidently he had abandoned all 
hope of getting possession of it, for he charged his son, to whom 
he one day pointed it out, to watch it well. 

But by conquest, treaty, and politic marriage alliances, one after 
another of the feudal fiefs were added to the royal domains, until 
finally the greater part of the kingdom belonged directly to the 
crown. Before the end of the reign of St. Louis (1226-12 70), 
the "French Alfred," France had come to be one of the most 
compact and powerful kingdoms in Europe. How various events 
and circumstances conspired to build up the power of the kings at 
the expense of that of the great lords and of the Church, will ap- 
pear as we go on. 

The most noteworthy events of the Capetian period were the 
acquisition by the French crown of the English possessions in 
France, the Holy Wars for the recovery of Jerusalem, the crusade 
against the Albigenses, the abolition of the Order of the Templars, 
and the admission of the Third Estate to the States- General. 

Of these several matters we will now speak in order. 

The English Possessions in France. — The issue of the battle 
of Hastings, in 1066, made William of Normandy king of England. 



1 Table of the Capetian Kings : — 
Hugh Capet (the Great) . 987- 996 
Robert II. (the Sage) . . 996-1031 

Henry 1 1031-1060 

Philip 1 1060-1108 

Louis VI. (the Fat) . . . 110S-1137 
Louis VII. (the Young) . 1137-1180 
Philip II. (Augustus) . . 1180-1223 



Louis VIII. (Lion-hearted) 1 223-1 226 
Louis IX. (the Saint) . . 1 226-1 270 
Philip III. (the Hardy) . 1270-1285 
Philip IV. (the Fair) . . 1 285-1 3 14 
Louis X. (Hutin) .... 1314-1316 
Philip V. (the Tall) . . .1316-1322 
Charles IV. (the Handsome) 1 322-1 38* 

(3 as 



THE FRENCH AND THE CRUSADES. 305 

He ruled that country by right of conquest. But we must bear in 
mind that he still held his possessions in France as a fief from the 
French king, whose vassal he was. This was the beginning of the 
possessions on the continent of the English kings. Then, when 
Henry, Count of Anjou, came to the English throne as the first of 
-the Plantagenets, these territories were greatly increased by the 
possessions which that prince had acquired by his marriage with 
Eleanor, who brought him the duchy of Guienne. The larger part 
of Henry's dominions, indeed, was in France, almost the whole of 
the western coast of the country being in his hands ; but for all of 
this he, of course, paid homage to the French king. 

As was inevitable, a feeling of intense jealousy sprang up be- 
tween the two sovereigns. The French king was ever watching 
for some pretext upon which he might deprive his rival of his pos- 
sessions in France. The opportunity came when King John, in 
1 199, succeeded Richard the Lion-hearted upon the English 
throne. That odious tyrant was accused, and doubtless justly, of 
having murdered his nephew Arthur, in order to clear his way to 
the crown. Philip Augustus, who then held the French throne, 
taking advantage of the feeling against him, declared that he had 
forfeited all the lands he held as fiefs of the French crown, and 
thereupon proceeded to seize Normandy and other of John's con- 
tinental possessions, leaving him nothing save the duchy of Aqui- 
taine. 

John's efforts to regain the lost territories were fruitless. The 
annexation of these large possessions to the crown of France 
brought a vast accession of power and patronage to the king, who 
was now easily the superior of any of his great vassals. 

The French and the Crusades. — The age of the Capetians was 
the age of the Crusades. These romantic expeditions, while stir- 
ring all Christendom, appealed especially to the ardent, imagina- 
tive genius of the Gallic race. Three Capetian kings, Louis VII., 
Philip Augustus, and Louis IX.. themselves headed several of the 
wild expeditions. It was the great predominance of French- 
speaking persons among the first crusaders which led the Eastern 



306 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

peoples to call them all Franks, the term still used throughout the 
East to designate Europeans, irrespective of their nationality. 

It is the influence of the Crusades on the French monarchy that 
we alone need to notice in this place. They tended very materi- 
ally to weaken the power and influence of the feudal nobility, and 
in a corresponding degree to strengthen the authority of the crown 
and add to its dignity. The way in which they brought about this 
transfer of power from the aristocracy to the king has been ex- 
plained in the chapter on the Crusades. 

Persecution of the Albigenses. —During this age of perverted 
religious enthusiasm holy wars were directed as well against here- 
tics as infidels. 

In the south of France, which country since the settlement of 
Marseilles by the Greeks in the sixth century b.c. had been open, 
by way of the sea, to Hellenic, Roman, and Saracenic influences, 
was a sect of Christians called Albigenses, 1 who had departed so 
far from the faith of the Church, that Pope Innocent III. felt con- 
strained to call upon the French king, Philip II., and his nobles to 
lead a crusade against the heretics and their chief prince, Ray- 
mond, Count of Toulouse, " one of the most powerful, and proba- 
bly the richest prince of Christendom." 

The king held aloof from the enterprise, being fully occupied 
watching his own enemies j but a great number of his nobles re- 
sponded eagerly to the call of the Church. The leader of the cru- 
sade was Simon de Montfort, 2 as cruel and remorseless a man as 
ever directed a religious persecution. Languedoc, the beautiful 
country of the Albigenses, was made a desert, its inhabitants being 
slaughtered and its cities burned. A single incident will illustrate 
the savage spirit of the crusaders. Upon the capture of a certain 
town, named Beziers, a Catholic officer asked one of the accompa- 
nying abbots how the soldiers should distinguish the heretics from 
the true believers. "Kill them all," was the reply; "the Lord 

1 From Albi, the name of a city and district in which their tenets prevailed. 

2 The father of the Simon de Montfort who first summoned the commons of 
England to take seats in Parliament. 



ADM I SSI OX OF THE THIRD ESTATE. 307 

will know his own." ' The order was obeyed literally, and every 
person within the walls was slain (1207). 

In 1229 the fury of a fresh crusade burst upon the Albigenses, 
which resulted in Prince Raymond VII. ceding the greater part 
of his beautiful but ravaged provinces to Louis IX., king of France. 
The cession made a large and valuable addition to the dominions 
of the French crown. 2 The prince further submitted himself to 
the Church, and the Albigensian heresy was almost extirpated by the 
cruelties of the Inquisition, which was now set up in the country. 

Admission of the Third Estate to the States-General (1302). — 
The event of the greatest significance in the Capetian age was the 
admission, in the reign of Philip the Fair, of the commons to the 
national assembly, or States-General. This transaction is in French 
history what the creation of the House of Commons is in English. 
The popular branches of the two councils were, however, called to 
take part in the administration of public affairs under very different 
circumstances. In England it was the nobility that sought the 
people's aid in their struggle with a despotic king. In France it 
was the king who summoned them to assist him in his quarrel with 
the Papal See. But the fact that the aid of the commons was 
courted, whether by nobles or king, indicates that in both coun- 
tries the people, the great middle class, were rising into impor- 
tance, and were holding in their hands the balance of power. 

The dispute between Philip and the Pope to which we have 
just referred arose respecting the control of the offices and reve- 
nues of the French Church. In order to rally to his support all 
classes throughout his kingdom, Philip called a meeting of the 
States-General, to which he invited representatives of the bur- 
ghers, or inhabitants of the cities (1302). 

1 It should he said that Catholic writers question this story, as it rests upon 
the authority of a single chronicler. See Alzog, Universal Church History, 
Vol. ii. p. 666. 

2 The part of Languedoc which was not ceded directly to Louis was to 
pass, upon the death of Raymond, to the king's brother Alphonso, who took 
in marriage the daughter of the < 'mint. Before the end of Louis's reign these 
possessions also were annexed to the French crown. 



308 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

The council had hitherto been made up of two estates only, — 
the nobles and the clergy ; now is added what comes to be known 
as the Tiers Etat, or Third Estate. 

Before the growing power of this Third Estate we shall see the 
Church, the nobility, and the monarchy all go down, just as in 
England we shall see clergy, nobles, and king yield to the rising 
power of the English Commons. 

Between the two cases we shall, however, observe this differ- 
ence : in England we shall see the transfer of power effected, for 
the most part, by gradual and timely reform in institutions and 
laws ; while in France we shall see the same thing, long delayed, 
finally accomplished amidst scenes of anarchy and terror threaten- 
ing the destruction of the French nation. 

The Abolition of the Order of the Templars. — The abolition 
of the Order of the Knights of the Temple by Philip the Fair 
affords an almost exact parallel to the suppression of the English 
monasteries by Henry VIIL, of which matter we shall come to 
speak hereafter. 

We have already, in connection with the history of the Cru- 
sades, learned about the origin of the religious and military Order 
of the Templars. In recognition of their services in the holy 
wars of the Church, they had had bestowed upon them, through the 
gifts of the pious and the grants of princes, enormous riches and 
the most unusual privileges. The number of manors that they 
held in the different countries of Europe is estimated at from 9,000 
to 10,000. But gain in wealth and power had been accompanied 
by a loss in virtue and piety. " All that was holy in the Order 
became sin and shame." The most incredible rumors of the 
immoral and blasphemous character of the secret rites and cere- 
monies of the society were spread abroad. 

Taking advantage of the feeling against the Order, Philip IV. 
(Je Bel, the "Fair"), whose desperate need of money led him 
to covet the wealth of the Templars, resolved upon the destruc- 
tion of the body and the confiscation of its property. Accord- 
ingly, upon a preconcerted day (Oct. 13, 1307), the chiefs of the 



GENERAL STATEMENT. 309 

Order throughout the kingdom were arrested, and many of them 
afterwards executed on various charges, among which were the 
betrayal of the cause of Christianity to infidels, — for the Knights' 
close contact with the Moslems had, as a matter of fact, made 
them very tolerant and liberal, — and spitting upon the Cross. 

The accused confessed that in certain of their secret ceremo- 
nies they did spit upon the sacred emblem, but explained the act 
as being symbolical, " in imitation and remembrance of St. Peter, 
who thrice denied Christ." But it seems evident that the sym- 
bolical character of the act had become quite forgotten, and that 
it was often performed with unbecoming levity. At all events, 
everybody was shocked at the confession, and would listen to no 
explanation. All classes sustained Philip in his severe measures 
against the body. As Michelet says, " the Order died of a symbol 
no longer understood." 

The immense wealth which the robbery of the Templars brought 
into the hands of Philip greatly enhanced the growing power and 
patronage of the crown, just as the strength and influence of 
Henry VIII. of England were vastly increased by the confiscated 
wealth of the religious houses he suppressed ; while the successful 
issue of his attack upon such a powerful organization served to 
inspire universal fear and respect for the royal name. 

France tinder the House of Valois (132 8- 149 8). 

General Statement. — The princes of the House of Valois 1 
held the French throne from 1328 to 1498, which latter date, as 
we have said, marks the close of the mediaeval era in France. 

The main interest of this period attaches to that long struggle 
between England and France known as the Hundred Years' War, 

1 The following table exhibits the names of the Valois kings: — 

Philip VI 132S-1350 

John (the Good) .... 1350-1364 
Charles V. (the Wise). 1364-13S0 
Charles VI. (the Well- 
Beloved) I 380-1422 



Charles VII. (the Vic- 
torious) 1422-1461 

Iahus-EK» . XJ. .... I461-I483 

Charles VIII. (the 

Affable) 14S3-149S 



310 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

although it really lasted one hundred and twenty years, thus ex- 
tending over the greater part of the age of the Valois kings. 
Having already, in connection with English affairs, touched upon 
the causes and incidents of this war, we shall here simply speak of 
the effects of the struggle on the French people and kingdom. 

Effects upon France of the Hundred Years' War. — Among 
the results, as regards France, of the Hundred Years' War, must 
be noticed the almost complete prostration, by the successive 
shocks of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, of the French feudal 
aristocracy, which was already tottering to its fall through the 
undermining influences of the Crusades ; the growth of the power 
of the king, a consequence, largely, of the ruin of the nobility ; 
and, lastly, the awakening of a feeling of nationality, and the 
drawing together of the hitherto isolated sections of the country 
by the attraction of a common and patriotic enthusiasm. 

Speaking in a very general manner, we may say that by the 
close of the war Feudalism in France was over, and that France 
had become, partly in spite of the war but more largely by reason 
of it, not only a great monarchy, but a great nation. 1 

Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. — Charles VIIL, the last of 
the direct line of the Valois, came to the throne of a well-consoli- 
dated kingdom. The foundations of the monarchy, laid by " the 
vigor of Philip Augustus, the fraternal wisdom of St. Louis, the 
policy of Philip the Fair," and widened and strengthened by the 
circumstances and issue of the Hundred Years' War, had, since the 
close of that struggle, been further enlarged and cemented by the 
strong and helpful, though despotic and unscrupulous, measures of 
Louis XL (1461-1483), who was a perfect Ulysses in craft and 

1 During this period of confusion many fiefs were unjustly seized by the 
king, while others again were fairly forfeited to the crown. The royal do- 
mains were still further enlarged by the purchase of territory that had never 
been held feudally of the French king. Thus, in 1349, Humbert II., Count of 
Vienne, sold Philip VI., for 120,000 florins, the important province of Dau- 
phine, in the Lower Rhone region. One of the conditions of the grant was 
that the eldest son of the French king should take the title of Dauphin^ 
which was thenceforth borne by the heir of the French throne. 



INVASION OF ITALY BY CHARLES VIII. 311 

deceit. The great lords that still retained power and influence, 
having formed a league against the king in order to retrieve their 
waning fortunes, were crushed one after another, and their fiefs 
united to the royal domains. Of all the vassal nobles ruined by 
the cunning and tyranny of Louis, the most famous and powerful 
was Charles the Bold, Duke u( Burgundy, with whom the French 
king was almost constantly warring, and against whom he was for- 
ever intriguing. Upon the death of the Duke, Louis treacherously 
seized a great part of his inheritance, which was almost large and 
rich enough to sustain the dignity of a king. By inheritance and 
treaty, Louis also gained large accessions of territory in the south 
of France, which gave his kingdom a wide frontage upon the Medi- 
terranean, and made the Pyrenees its southern defense. The 
marriage of Charles VIII. to Anne of Brittany, whom he courted 
with the sword, added that large province, which had hitherto con- 
stituted an almost independent state, to the French kingdom. 

Thus Charles VIII., through the favor of a long series of circum- 
stances, the persistent policy of his predecessors, and his own 
politic marriage, found himself at the head of a kingdom which, 
gradually transformed from a feudal league into a true monarchy, 
had, by slow expansion, touched, upon almost every side, those 
natural limits of sea, river, and mountain seemingly intended by 
nature to mark out the boundaries of French dominion. 

Charles was a w r eak and romantic youth, too simple-minded to 
profit by the maxim, taught him by his Ulyssean father, " He who 
knows how to deceive, knows how to reign." His extravagant 
fancy led him to dream of some brilliant and chivalric enterprise, 
that should draw the gaze of the world. He conceived the idea 
of making his kingdom the nucleus of an empire like that of 
Charlemagne. The standing army at his command, — which had 
been created by Charles VII. during the latter years of the war 
with England, 1 — a well-filled treasury, and the adulations of his 
courtier nobles, encouraged him in his wild ambition. 

1 The paid force of infantry and cavalry created by Charles VII. in 1448 
was the first standing army in Europe, and the beginning of that vast military 



312 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Paying no heed to the threatening movements of the numerous 
enemies whom jealousy, and fear of the increasing power of France, 
had raised up on every side, Charles gathered an army of 50,000 
men, and began the passage of the Alps, intent on the conquest of 
Naples, — which he claimed on the strength of an old bequest by 
some member of the House of Anjou, — proposing, with that state 
subdued, to lead a crusade to the East, for the recovery of Con- 
stantinople and Jerusalem from the hands of the Turks. 

Charles marched without serious opposition through Italy to 
Naples, which he entered in triumph in 1495. Here, in the midst 
of splendid ceremonies, he caused himself to be crowned " King of 
Naples, Emperor of the East, and King of Jerusalem." 

Meanwhile the king of Aragon, the Venetians, and other powers 
were uniting their armies to punish the insolence and check the 
vaulting ambition of the would-be emperor and crusader. Ap- 
prised of the movements of his enemies, the " King of Naples and 
Jerusalem," deferring until a more convenient time his Eastern 
expedition, set out on his return to France, leaving a small force 
at Naples to hold his conquests. In Northern Italy he found his 
way blocked by the allies with an army outnumbering his three to 
one. However, he secured a victory over his opposers ; but 
bought it at the cost of a large part of his army. With the rem- 
nant he made good his retreat into France. The forces he had 
left at Naples were quickly driven out of the place, and thus ended 
Charles's dream of a Universal French Empire. 

This enterprise of Charles is noteworthy not only because it 
marks the commencement of a long series of brilliant yet disas- 
trous campaigns carried on by the French in Italy, but for the rea- 
son that in a more general way it foreshadows that aggrandizing and 
aggressive spirit that henceforth characterizes the foreign policy 
of the successive monarchs of France. It is further worthy of at- 
tention on account of Charles's army having been made up largely 

system which now burdens the great nations of that continent with the sup- 
port of several millions of soldiers constantly under arms. 



THE TROUBADOURS 313 

of paid troops instead of feudal retainers, which fact assures us 
that the feudal system, as a govenmental organization, had come 
to an end. 

Formation of the French Language and the Beginnings of French 

Literature. 

The Language. — The contact of the old Latin speech in Gaul 
with that of the Teutonic invaders gave rise there to two very dis- 
tinct dialects, dialects so unlike, indeed, that it would be quite 
correct to regard them as constituting two separate languages. 
These were the Langue d'Oe, or Provencal, the tongue of the South 
of France and of the adjoining regions of Spain and Italy ; and the 
Langue d'Oi/, or French proper, the language of the North. 1 

The soft, musical tongue of the South, predestined though it was 
to an early decay, was the first, as we shall learn in a moment, to 
develop a literature ; but when the North precipitated itself upon 
the South in the furious crusades against the Albigenses, the lan- 
guage, literature, and heretical religion of these Southern provin- 
ces were all swept away together. As the persecuted faith was 
driven into obscurity, so in like manner the old speech was driven 
out of palace and court, and found a place only among the rude 
peasantry. 

The position of this once famous Provencal speech among living 
languages may be illustrated by comparing its fortunes with those 
of the Celtic tongue in its conflict with the Anglo-Saxon in the 
British Isles. 

The Troubadours. — About the beginning of the twelfth cen- 
tury, by which time the Provencal tongue had become settled and 
somewhat polished, literature in France first began to find a voice 
in the songs of the Troubadours, 2 the poets of the South. It is 

1 The terms Langue cPOc and Langue d* Oil arose from the use of different 
words for yes, which in the tongue of the South was or, and in that of the North 
oil. 

2 From the 1'rovencal trobar, to find, to invent. The Northern poets were 
called Trouveurs, from the French trouper^ meaning the same as trobar. 



314 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

instructive to note that it was the home of the Albigensian heresy, 
the land that had felt the influence of every Mediterranean civil- 
ization, that was also the home of the Troubadour literature. The 
counts of Toulouse, the protectors of the hereties, were also the 
patrons of the poets. It was, as we have intimated, the same 
fierce persecution which uprooted the heretical faith that stilled 
the song of the Troubadours. " The tremendous storm that fell 
upon Languedoc in the crusade against the Albigenses shook off 
the flowers of Provencal verse." — Hallam. 

The compositions of the Troubadours were, for the most part, 
love-songs and satires. Among the countless names of these min- 
strels of the South are some that had a fame which was spread 
throughout Christendom. Richard Coeur de Lion composed some 
songs which still endure. But perhaps the greatest of all the 
Provencal poets was Bertrand de Born, whose fierce and vehement 
verses stirred up passions and wars. Because of the mischief and 
schism he wrought, Dante, in his Divine Comedy, pictures him 
among the tormented in Hell, where he is condemned to bear his 
severed head in his own hands. 

The verses of the Troubadours were sung in almost every land, 
and to the stimulating influence of their musical harmonies the 
early poetry of almost every people of Europe is largely indebted. 

The Trouveurs. — These were the poets of Northern France, 
who composed in the Langue iV Oil, or Old French tongue. They 
nourished during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. As the 
poetical literature of the South found worthy patrons in the counts 
of Toulouse, so did that of the North find admiring encouragers 
in the dukes of Normandy. 

There was, however, a wide difference between the literature of 
Southern and that of Northern France. The compositions of the 
Troubadours were almost exclusively lyrical songs, while those of 
the Trouveurs were epic or narrative poems, called romances. 
These latter celebrated the chivalrous exploits of great princes and 
knights, and displayed at times almost Homeric animation and 
grandeur. They gather about three famous names, — Charle- 



THE TROUVEURS. 315 

magne, King Arthur, and Alexander the Great, — thus forming 
what are designated as the cycle of Charlemagne, the Arthu- 
rian or Armorican cycle, and the Alexandrian. The poems of 
these several cycles not only celebrate the wars and adven- 
tures of the distinguished heroes whose names they bear, but 
also rehearse the marvelous deeds of their vassal knights and 
descendants. Thus, in the famous Song of Roland, in the first 
cycle, are celebrated the deeds of Roland, the companion of 
Charles the Great, who cleaves the Pyrenees with one blow of his 
enchanted sword Durandal, and shakes all the earth with a single 
blast of his magic horn ; in the romances of the Knights of the 
Round Table, in the second cycle, are told the chivalrous enter- 
prises of the companions of good King Arthur ; while in the His- 
tory of the taking of Troy and the Romance of Alexander, in the 
third series, we have Greek and mediaeval heroes and legends 
mixed in the most entertaining and ingenious confusion. 

The extravagance, the credulity, the coarseness that mark much 
of this romantic literature, indicate the rude and uncritical charac- 
ter of the age that produced and applauded it. Yet notwithstand- 
ing these defects, inseparable from the literary products of an age 
still struggling with barbarian instincts and impulses, the influence 
of these French romances upon the springing literature of Europe 
was most inspiring and helpful. Nor has their influence yet ceased. 
Thus in English literature, not only did Chaucer and Spenser and 
all the early island poets draw inspiration from these fountains of 
continental song, but the later Tennyson, in his Idyls of the King> 
has illustrated the power over the imagination yet possessed by the 
Arthurian poems of the old Trouveurs. 

Besides the great narrative poems of the Trouveurs, the litera- 
ture of the North produced innumerable allegories and fables. 
Many of them are of almost endless length, containing over 20,000 
lines. These long poems were produced in somewhat the same 
way as the cathedrals of the same age were built, — by the addi- 
tions of generation after generation of poets. A large part of early 
English poetry is scarcely more than a free translation of the tales, 



316 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

allegories, and fables of this French' literature of the mediaeval 
period. 

Prose "Writers. — The first really famous prose writer in French 
literature was Froissart (133 7-1 410), whose entertaining credulity 
and artlessness, and skill as a story-teller, have won for him the 
title of the French Herodotus. Born, as he was, only a little after 
the opening of the Hundred Years' War, and knowing personally 
many of the actors in that long struggle, it was fitting that he 
should have become, as he did, the annalist of those stirring times. 
In his famous Chronicles he has left us the most wonderfully life- 
like portraitures of the celebrated characters, both French and 
English, of that period, as well as the most vivid pictures that we 
possess of the scenes, customs, and manners of the age. Like 
Herodotus, he was a great traveller, going about everywhere to 
collect material for his history, which, while dealing chiefly with 
the affairs of France and England from 1326 to 1400, touches the 
matters of all Christendom, and other parts of the world besides. 
He talked with everybody, with kings and with peasants, and wrote 
down at night what had been told him during the day. The book 
was his life-work ; he began it, he tells us, at the age of twenty, 
and in the collection of material for it " took greater pleasure than 
in anything else." 

The inimitable Chronicles have an added value from the age in 
which they were written. It was, as we have learned, a transition 
period. Feudalism was fast passing away, and Chivalry was begin- 
ning to feel the breath of a new era. But as the forests never 
clothe themselves in more gorgeous colors than when already 
touched by decay, so Chivalry never arrayed itself in more splen- 
did magnificence than when about to die. In the age of Edward 
III. and the Black Prince it displayed its most sumptuous and 
prodigal splendor. And this is the age which the rare genius of 
Froissart has painted for us. " Fie has presented a living picture of 
Europe in its boisterous springtime, with all its tumultuous pleas- 
ure, its chivalric glories, and its magnificent superstitions. He 



UN10X OF CASTILE AND ARAGON. 317 

has given us a type both of the splendor and the decline of the 
heroic world." ' 

III. Spain. 

Beginning' of Spain. — When, in the eighth century, the Sara- 
cens swept like a wave over Spain, the mountains of Asturia, in the 
northwest corner of the peninsula, afforded a refuge for the most 
resolute of the Christian chiefs who refused to submit their necks to 
the Moslem yoke. These brave and hardy warriors not only suc- 
cessfully defended the hilly districts that formed their retreat, but 
gradually pushed back the invaders, and regained control of a por- 
tion of the fields and cities that had been lost. This work of recon- 
quest was greatly furthered by Charlemagne, who, it will be recalled, 
drove the Saracens out of all the northeastern portion of the country 
as far south as the Ebro, and made the subjugated district a prov- 
ince of his great empire, under the name of the Spanish March. 

By the opening of the eleventh century several little Christian 
states, among which we must notice the names of Castile and Ara- 
gon, because of the prominent part they were to play in later 
history, had been established upon the ground thus recovered or 
always maintained. Castile was at first simply "a line of castles " 
against the Moors, whence its name. 

Union of Castile and Aragon (1479). — For several centuries 
the princes of the little states to which we have referred kept up 
an incessant warfare with their Mohammedan neighbors ; but, 
owing to dissensions among themselves, they were unable to com- 
bine in any effective way for the reconquest of their ancient pos- 
sessions. But the marriage, in 1469, of Ferdinand, prince of 
Aragon, to Isabella, princess of Castile, paved the way for the 
virtual union in 1479 of these two leading states into the kingdom 
of Spain. By this happy union the quarrels of these two rival 
principalities were composed, and they were now free to employ 

1 The wriicr who stood next to Froissart in the prose literature of this pe- 
riod was Philip de Comines (1445-1509), whose Memoirs, besides being a 
good history of his times, give us a valuable insight into the life and charac- 
ter of the crafty Louis X I. 



318 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

their united strength in effecting what the Christian princes 
amidst all their contentions had never lost sight of, — the expul- 
sion of the Moors from the peninsula. 

The Conquest of Granada (1492). — At the time when the 
basis of the Spanish monarchy was laid by the union of Castile and 
Aragon, the Mohammedan possessions had been reduced, by the 
constant pressure of the Christian chiefs through eight centuries, to 
a very limited dominion in the south of Spain. Here the Moors 
had established a strong, well-compacted state, known as the King- 
dom of Granada. 

The province of Granada, naturally fertile, had become, through 
the industry and skill of the Moors, one of the best cultivated and 
richest districts in Spain. It embraced within its narrow limits 
seventy walled towns besides the capital, Granada, a potent and 
opulent city, with a population of a quarter of a million. All these 
cities, particularly the capital, were enriched with superb speci- 
mens of Moorish architecture, many of the palaces of the wealthy 
being decorated with fabulous magnificence. 

As soon as Ferdinand and Isabella had settled the affairs of 
their dominions, they began to make preparation for the con- 
quest of Granada, eager to signalize their reign by the reduction of 
this last stronghold of the Moorish power in the peninsula. The 
Moors made a desperate defense of their little State. The struggle 
lasted for ten years. City after city fell into the hands of the 
Christian knights, and finally Granada, pressed by an army of sev- 
enty thousand, was forced to surrender, and the Cross replaced the 
Crescent on its walls and towers (1492). The Moors, or Moris- 
coes, as they were called, were allowed to remain in the country, 
though under many annoying restrictions. What is known as their 
expulsion occurred at a later date. 

The fall of Granada holds an important place among the many 
significant events that mark the latter half of the fifteenth century. 
It ended, after an existence of eight hundred years, the Moham- 
medan kingdom in the Spanish peninsula, and thus formed an 
offset to the progress of the Moslem power in Eastern Europe and 



THE INQUISITION. 319 

the loss to the Christian world of Constantinople. It advanced 
Spain to the first rank among the nations of Europe, and gave her 
arms a prestige that secured for her position, influence, and defer- 
ence long after the decline of her power had commenced. 

Growth of the Royal Power. — One matter of great importance 
marking the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella was the abridging 
of the privileges of the nobility, and the consequent enhancement 
of the authority of the crown. In no country of Europe was the 
power of the feudal lords greater than in Spain, nor did any 
country suffer more from their rapacious and quarrelsome char- 
acter. 

For the sake of protection against the nobles, — and also against 
the robbers and assassins who had sprung up during the anarchy 
and disorder induced throughout the entire country by reason of 
the wretched administration of justice under the feudal system, 
— the towns and cities had formed a sort of league, known as the 
Holy Brotherhood, a confederation something like that of the 
Hanse towns of Northern Europe. 

By joining with these cities against the aristocracy, Ferdinand 
forced them to give up certain of their unjust privileges, and thus 
greatly weakened their power. He further undermined the influ- 
ence and strength of many of the great feudal houses, by securing 
decrees of court which took away from them lands which had 
been too freely conferred upon unworthy favorites by his feeble 
predecessors, much to the prejudice of the crown, and by bestow- 
ing dignities and offices upon persons outside of the ranks of the 
ancient nobility. Finally, by maintaining the royal court with a 
degree of ceremony and magnificence which even the wealthiest 
of his barons were unable to imitate, he caused the kingly office 
to be held in higher estimation and the sovereign to be regarded 
with greater respect and reverence. — Robertson. 

The Inquisition. — Another matter belonging to this period, 
and something which casts a dark shadow upon the reign of the 
illustrious sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella, was the establish- 
ment in Spain of the Inquisition, or Holy Office, with a view to the 



320 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

detection and punishment of heresy. The inquisitors, with their 
terrible work sanctioned and favored by both Papal and royal 
power, became the instruments of the most incredible tyranny. 
The Jews were the chief victims of the merciless tribunal. Thou- 
sands were given up to the flames, and tens of thousands more 
were condemned to endure penalties scarcely less terrible. 1 The 
auto da fe (act of faith), as the burning of the condemned was 
called, became one of the commonest sights in Spain. It was 
made a sort of sacred festival, and the Sabbath very commonly 
given up to its celebration. 

The Inquisition succeeded in suppressing freedom of thought 
and conscience in Spain, but in doing this it sapped the strength 
and life of the Spanish people. Whatever was most promising and 
vigorous was withered and blasted. Thus at the same time that 
Ferdinand and Isabella were doing so much to foster the national 
life, their unfortunate religious zeal was planting the upas which was 
destined completely to overshadow and poison the springing ener- 
gies of the nation. Yet in all this Queen Isabella sincerely believed 
she was rendering God good service. " In the love of Christ and 
his Maid-Mother," she says, " I have caused great misery. I have 
depopulated towns and districts, provinces and kingdoms." 

Columbus given his Commission. — Still another matter per- 
taining to the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, an event of the 
very greatest significance to Spain, was the discovery of America ; 
for the very year which saw the fall of Granada was the one that 
witnessed the first expedition of Columbus. Isabella, while en- 
camped with her army beneath the walls of Granada, — for the 
energetic queen accompanied her soldiers to the field and took an 

1 " The data for an accurate calculation of the number of victims sacrificed by 
the Inquisition during this reign are not very satisfactory. From such as exist, 
however, Llorente has been led to the most frightful results. He computes 
that, during the eighteen years of Torquemada's ministry, there were no less 
than 10,220 burnt, 6,860 condemned, and burnt in effigy as absent or dead, 
and 97,321 reconciled by various other penances." — Prescott's Ferdinand and 
Isabella, Vol. I. p. 265. (Boston, 1838.) 



THE POEM OF THE CID. 321 

active part in directing the operations of war, — was planning with 
Columbus his great enterprise; and it was only a few days after 
the downfall of Granada, that she gave to him that fortunate com- 
mission which added a New World to the Spanish crown. Of the 
expedition itself we shall speak in the following chapter, thus mak- 
ing it the prelude of Modern History. 

Deaths of Ferdinand and Isabella. — Queen Isabella died in 
1504, and Ferdinand followed her in the year 15 16, upon which 
latter event the crown of Spain descended upon the head of his 
grandson, Charles, of whom we shall hear much as Emperor 
Charles V. With his reign the modern history of Spain begins. 

Beginnings of the Spanish Language and Literature. 

The Language. — After the union of Castile and Aragon it was 
the language of the former that became the speech of the Spanish 
court. During the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella it gradually 
gained the ascendancy over the numerous dialects of the country, 
and became the national speech, just as in France the Langue 
d'Oil finally crowded out all other dialects. By the conquests and 
colonizations of the sixteenth century this Castilian speech was 
destined to become only less widely spread than the English 
tongue. 

The Poem of the Cid. — Castilian or Spanish literature begins in 
the twelfth century with the romance poem of the Cid, one of the 
most famous literary productions of the mediaeval period. This 
grand national poem was the outgrowth of the sentiments inspired 
by the long struggle between the Spanish Christians and the 
Mohammedan Moors. The hero of the epic is Ruy Diaz, sur- 
named the Cid (meaning Lord), the champion of Christianity and 
Castilian royalty, during the latter part of the eleventh century, 
against the Saracens. He is made by the romancers to be the 
impersonation of every knightly virtue, — generosity, patriotism, 
courage, truthfulness, honor, and loyalty. The real Cid was quite 
a different character. 



322 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 



IV. Germany. 

Beginnings of the Kingdom of Germany. — The history of 
Germany as a separate kingdom begins with the break-up of the 
empire of Charlemagne. It will be recalled that by the famous 
partition treaty of Verdun (843) the vast dominions over which 
the great king had ruled were divided among his three grandsons, 
Charles, Lothar, and Louis, by which partition the kingdoms of 
France, Italy, and Germany were roughly outlined. After this 
division, the three kingdoms were again united for a short time 
under Charles the Fat ; but on his deposition they broke apart 
forever (887), this time separating into four pieces. The part to 
the east of the Rhine, with which fragment alone we are now 
specially concerned, was called the Teutonic Kingdom, or the 
Kingdom of the Eastern Franks, in distinction from that to the 
west of the river, which was known as the Kingdom of the West- 
ern Franks. 

This Eastern Frankish kingdom was made up of several groups of 
tribes, — the Saxons, the Suabians, the Thuringians, the Bavarians, 
and the Franks, of which the latter were at this time chief, and 
gave name to the whole. Closely allied in race, speech, manners, 
and social arrangements, all these peoples seemed ready to be 
welded into a close and firm nation ; but, unfortunately, the cir- 
cumstances tending to keep the several states or communities 
apart were stronger than those operating to draw them together, so 
that for a thousand years after Charlemagne we find them consti- 
tuting hardly anything more than a very loose confederation, the 
members of which were constantly struggling among themselves for 
supremacy, or were engaged in private wars with the neighboring 
nations. 

Germany under the Carolingians (843-911). 

The Hungarians. — The descendants of Charlemagne ruled 
over the Eastern Franks until the year 911. During this period 
Germany was distressed on the north by the Scandinavian cor- 



GENERAL STATEMENT. 323 

sairs, and on the east by the Magyars, or Hungarians, a fierce 
Turanian race, close kin to the terrible Huns of Attila. These 
non-Aryan people succeeded during this period in gaining perma- 
nent possession of the region known from them as Hungary, and 
in laying the foundations there of a strong kingdom, the princes 
of which compelled the last Carolingian king to pay them tribute. 
Establishment of the Feudal System. —The confusion and 
general insecurity of the times gave an impulse to the develop- 
ment of Feudalism, although the system was of much slower and 
less perfect growth here than in France. As the system expanded, 
the Church of course entered it, and the bishops and abbots 
became powerful feudal lords, and acquired a very great influence 
in public affairs. These ecclesiastical feudatories, as well as those 
prelates who were princes of the Empire, had a place, like the 
spiritual lords in England, with the secular lords and princes in 
the Diet, or National Assembly, a body which at this time was 
called together at irregular intervals to consult with the king on 
matters concerning the public welfare. 

Germany tinder the Saxon Emperors (919-1024). 

General Statement. — Upon the death of the last of the East- 
ern Carolingians, the German princes and nobles elected Duke 
Conrad of Franconia as king (911-918), passing by the Carolin- 
gian king of France (Charles the Silly), who was in strict right the 
heir of the last German Carolingian. By this act of theirs, which 
was contrary to the traditions of the kingdom and the commands 
of the Pope, the kingdom of Germany was changed from an 
hereditary to an elective monarchy. 

Conrad was followed by Henry of Saxony, known in history as 
Henry the Fowler, from the circumstance that the nobles who 
carried to him the news of his election to the throne found him in 
the mountains hawking, with a bird upon his wrist. With this 
king begins the Saxon dynasty, a line of strong rulers, who, had it 
not been for the adoption by them of an unfortunate policy 
respecting a world-empire, might have made Germany a powerful, 



324 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

closely-knitted nation. The fatal mistake to which we refer will 
be explained in a following paragraph, when we come to speak of 
Otto I. 

Henry as the Founder of Cities. — Henry was an able and 
energetic ruler. He suppressed disorders throughout the king- 
dom, and reorganized the military system by introducing the use 
of cavalry. He is chiefly noted, however, as the founder of towns. 
As a protection against the inroads of the Hungarians and other 
savage enemies, he defended many of the existing towns with 
walls, and built many new ones, which were designed as places of 
refuge in case of invasion. 

To enhance the importance of the cities, he ordered that all 
public meetings should be held, and all popular ceremonies cele- 
brated, within their gates. Under such royal patronage the towns 
grew rapidly in population and wealth. In later times the burgher 
class thus created came to be the most influential in the kingdom. 
They were usually loyal to the king, and were his main reliance in 
his struggles with the factious and insubordinate princes and 
nobles. 

Renewal of the Roman Empire by Otto the Great (962). — 
When the dominions of Charlemagne were divided among his three 
grandsons, the Imperial title was given to Lothar, to whom fell 
Italy and the Rhine-land. The title, however, meant scarcely 
anything, carrying with it little or no real authority. The king, 
who bore the title, enjoyed a sort of nominal pre-eminence among 
the different rulers of the several fragments of the shattered 
dominions of Charlemagne, but that was all. Thus matters ran 
on for more than a century, the empty honor of the title some- 
times being enjoyed by the kings of Italy, and again by those of 
the Eastern Franks. 

But with the accession of the son of Henry the Fowler, Otto I., 
who was crowned king at Aachen in 936, there appeared among 
the princes of Europe a second Charlemagne. He was easily 
first among them all. Besides being king of Germany, — and 
here he was king in reality as well as in name, — he became, 



CONSEQUENCES TO GERMANY OF THE REVIVAL. 325 

through interference on request in the affairs of Italy, king of that 
country also. Furthermore, he wrested large tracts of land from 
the Slavonians, and forced the Danes, Poles, and Hungarians to 
acknowledge his suzerainty. Thus favored by fortune, he naturally 
conceived the idea of restoring once more the Roman Empire, 
even as it had been revived by the great Charles. Of course it 
was the old idea of a universal empire, of which we have so often 
spoken, that was filling his imagination. 

So in 962, just a little more than a century and a half after the 
coronation at Rome of Charlemagne as Emperor, Otto, at the 
same place and by the same Papal authority, was crowned Em- 
peror of the Romans. For a generation no one had borne the 
title. From this time on it was the rule that the German king 
who was crowned at Aachen had a right to be crowned king of 
Italy at Milan, and Emperor at Rome. — Freeman. Thus 
three crowns, and in time still more, came to be heaped upon a 
single head. 

Consequences to Germany of the Revival of the Empire. — 
The scheme of Otto respecting the world-empire was a grand one, 
but, as had been demonstrated by the failure of the attempt of 
Charlemagne, was an utterly impracticable idea. It was simply a 
dream, and never became anything more than a ghostly shadow. 
Yet the pursuit of this phantom by the German kings resulted in 
the most woful consequences to Germany. Some of these kings, 
indeed, did not care enough about the thing to cross the Alps in 
order to receive the Imperial crown ; but the most of them were 
eager to secure it, and were fatally persistent in their efforts to 
make it mean something. The natural result was the arousing of 
the enmity of their brother sovereigns, over whom they exercised, 
or claimed the right to exercise, a sort of suzerainty. Particularly 
in Italy did the German rulers try to make good their Imperial 
claims. 

The result was that the German rulers, trying to grasp too much, 
seized nothing at all. Attempting to be emperors of the world, 
they failed to become even kings of Germany. While engaged in 



326 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OE REVIVAL. 

their schemes of foreign conquest, their home affairs were neg- 
lected, and their vassals succeeded in increasing their power and 
making it hereditary. Thus while the kings of England, France, 
and Spain were gradually consolidating their dominions, and 
building up strong centralized monarchies on the ruins of Feudal- 
ism, the sovereigns of Germany, neglecting the affairs of their own 
kingdom, were allowing it to become split up into a vast number 
of virtually independent states, the ambitions and jealousies of 
whose rulers were to postpone the unification of Germany for four 
or five hundred years — until our own day. 

Had the Emperors only inflicted loss and disaster upon Ger- 
many through their pursuit of this phantom, the case would not be 
so lamentable ; but the fair fields of Italy were for centuries made 
the camping fields of the Imperial armies, and the whole penin- 
sula kept distracted with the bitter quarrels of Guelphs and Ghi- 
bellines, and thus the nationalization of the Italian people was also 
delayed for centuries. 

Germany received just one positive compensation for all this 
loss accruing from the ambition of her kings. This was the gift 
of Italian civilization, which came into Germany through the con- 
nections of the Emperors with the peninsula. 

The German Kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire. — It will 
be well, perhaps, if we add one word further respecting the relation 
of the German Kingdom to the Holy Roman Empire. The "Em- 
pire," after the addition to it of Burgundy in 1032, embraced 
three kingdoms, the Kingdom of Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, 
and the Kingdom of Burgundy. But in the course of time Italy 
dropped away, and then Burgundy fell off, until nothing save the 
German Kingdom remained. Then, of course, the German King- 
dom and the so-called Holy Roman Empire had the same bounda- 
ries — became geographically identical. Hence, it was natural 
that the distinction should be forgotten and the names become 
confounded, and the German Kingdom come to be called the 
German Empire. " It was a German confederation, which kept 
the forms and titles of the Empire." 






HENRY TIL AND HENRY IV. 327 

Otto III. — The Saxon Emperor who, next after Otto I., is 
most worthy of particular notice, is Otto III. (983-1002), whom 
his contemporaries called the Wonder of the World. It is not his 
greatness of character nor the achievements of his reign that 
entitles him to our consideration, but the fact that he best repre- 
sents those ideas respecting the Empire and Germany's relation to 
it of which we have been speaking. His scheme was to make 
Rome the centre of a World-Empire, of which Germany should 
be simply a province. In his court he sought to imitate that of 
the Greek Emperors. His ardent, romantic, imaginative nature is 
perhaps best illustrated by his visit to the tomb of Charlemagne 
at Aachen, which he opened and entered, hoping and believing 
that in the presence of the first restorer of the Roman Empire, he 
would receive, through word or gesture, a revelation of how best 
to manage its affairs. When he died, — which event occurred in 
1002, while he was laying siege to Rome, that city having rebelled 
against his authority, — he was buried in this same royal city, near 
the ashes of his great predecessor. 

Germany under the Franconian Emperors (1 024-1 125). 

Burgundy joined to the Empire. — The first king of this line 
was Conrad II., a Franconian nobleman, an able and discreet 
administrator. The important event of his reign was the addition 
to the Empire of the kingdom of Burgundy (1032), which had 
been formed in 933. From this time on he who was crowned 
king of Germany was regarded as having a right to the Burgun- 
dian crown. In the course of a few centuries France succeeded 
in stripping the Emperors of a large part of this kingdom, the 
union of which with the Empire was never very close. 

Henry III. and Henry IV. — The government of the Emperor 
Henry III. (1039-105 6) was one of the best and strongest that 
Germany ever enjoyed. The dukes and princes were humbled 
and made obedient, and Germany took on the aspect of a real 
monarchy. The Hungarians, who were constantly making the 
German kings much trouble, were severely chastised, and the 



328 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OE REVIVAL. 

Pope was taught to regard the Emperor as his superior. Thus, in 
every way, were both the royal and the Imperial power enlarged 
and strengthened. 

The name of Henry IV. (1056-1106) is already familiar to us 
through his quarrel with Hildebrand, and his humble submission 
to that Pope at Canossa. During this reign the princes and 
nobles, taking advantage of their sovereign's troubles with the 
Pope, greatly augmented their power and enlarged their privileges. 
Under his successors the royal power still further declined, so that 
when the dynasty ended the king possessed barely the shadow of 
authority. 

Germany under the Hohenstaufen Emperors (1138-1254). 1 

Welfs and Waiblings. — We have now reached a most notable 
line of Emperors, the Hohenstaufen or Suabian dynasty. The 
matter of chief importance is the long and bitter conflict — begun 
generations before — waged between the Emperors of this family 
and the Popes. Germany and Italy were divided into two great 
parties, known as Welfs and Waiblings, or, as designated in Italy, 
Guelphs and Ghibellines, the former adhering to the Pope, the 
latter to the Emperor. The outcome of a century's contention 
was the utter ruin of the House of the Hohenstaufen. 

Frederick I, Barbarossa. — The most noted ruler of the line 
was Frederick I. (1152-1190), better known as Frederick Barba- 
rossa, from his red beard. We have, in another place, told of his 
long contest with the Italian cities, which resulted in their virtual 
independence of the Imperial authority, and of his part in the 
Third Crusade, in which enterprise he lost his life while crossing a 
river in Asia Minor. He gave Germany a good and strong gov- 
ernment, and gained a sure place in the affections of the German 
people, who came to regard him as the representative of the senti- 
ment of German nationality. Other Emperors, when engaged in 
contentions with the Pope, always had a great many among their 

1 Lothar of Saxony (1125-1137) fills the gap between the Franconian and 
Hohenstaufen Emperors. 



SICILY JOINED TO THE GERMAN CROWN. 3Z<) 

own German subjects ready to join the Roman See against their 
own sovereign ; but all classes in Germany gathered about their 
beloved Frederick. When news of his death was brought back 
from the East, they refused to believe that he was dead, and, as 
time passed, a tradition arose which told how he slept in a cavern 
beneath one of his castles on a mountain top, and how, when the 
ravens should cease to circle about the hill, he would appear, to 
make the German people a nation united and strong. " Nothing 
in his character," says Taylor, " or in the proud and selfish aim of 
his life, justifies this sentiment which the people attached to his 
name ; but the legend became a symbol of their hopes and 
prayers, through centuries of oppression and desolating war, and 
the name of Barbarossa is sacred to every patriotic heart in Ger- 
many even at this day." 

Kingdom of Sicily joined to the German Crown. — Frederick 
Barbarossa was followed by his son Henry VI. (1190-1197), who, 
by marriage, had acquired a claim to the kingdom of Sicily.' 
Almost all his time and resources were spent in reducing that 
remote realm to a state of proper subjection to his authority. By 
thus leading the Emperors to neglect their German subjects and 
interests, this southern kingdom proved a fatal dower to the Sua- 
bian house. Henry's son, Frederick II. (121 2-1. 250), who had 
been born in Sicily, was, like his father, enamored of its rich sun- 

1 The basis of the kingdom of Sicily, it will be recalled, was laid by Nor- 
man adventurers in the latter part of the eleventh century. As it embraced 
Naples as well as the Island of Sicily, it was sometimes called the kingdom of 
Naples, or the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, or, again, the kingdom of the 
Two Sicilies. The line of the Norman kings ended in 1189. The Ilohen- 
staufen then held the kingdom until 1265, when the Pope gave it as a fief to 
Charles I. of Anjou (brother of Louis IX. of France), who beheaded the 
rightful heir, the ill-starred boy Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen race 
(1268). Charles's oppressive rule led to a revolt of his island subjects, and to 
the great massacre known as the Sicilian Vespers (1282). All of the hated 
race of Frenchmen were either killed or driven out of the island. The 
House of Anjou retained Naples, but Sicily now passed to the king of Ara- 
gon (1283). In these revolutions the way was paved for interminable dynas- 
tic quarrels and wars, which involved particularly Spain, Fiance, and Germany. 



330 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

shine and voluptuous pleasures. Although he took part in the 
Sixth Crusade, and fought hard for the recovery of Jerusalem, he 
declared that " if God had seen Sicily, he would never have selected 
Palestine for the abode of his people." Germany had for him 
very little attraction, and for a period of fifteen years he did not 
once set his foot in the country. 

Consequences of the Hohenstaufen Policy. — By the close of 
the Hohenstaufen period Germany was divided into two hundred 
and seventy-six virtually independent states, the princes and nobles 
having taken advantage of the prolonged absences of the Empe- 
rors, or their troubles with the Popes and the Italian cities, to free 
themselves almost completely from the control of the crown. 
There was really no longer either a German kingdom or a Roman 
Empire. The royal as well as the Imperial title had become an 
empty name. Such were the lamentable consequences of the 
unfortunate ambition and mistaken policy of the proud Hohenstau- 
fen. The princes of the House were all able rulers, some of them 
learned and large-minded men, and had they simply attended 
to the affairs of Germany, and not allowed themselves to be de- 
luded by the Imperial phantom, they might have made them- 
selves the strongest sovereigns in Europe. They would have been 
able, doubtless, to realize the less dazzling but more substantial 
ambition of rendering the German crown hereditary in their 
family, and thus have gained for their race the power and glory 
that came to be won by the famous House of Hapsburg. 

Cathedral-building. — The age of the Hohenstaufen was the 
age of the Crusades, which is to say that it was the age of relig- 
ious faith. The most striking expression of the spirit of the 
period, if we except the Holy Wars, is to be found in the sacred 
architecture of the times. The enthusiasm for church-building, 
though most earnest and passionate in the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries, began to manifest itself as early as the eleventh. A 
monkish chronicler, writing at the opening of that century, says, 
" It was as if the earth, rousing itself and casting away its old 
robes, clothed itself with the white garment of churches." 



CA Til ED R A 1,-B ( 'I J. DING. 331 

The style of architecture first employed was the Romanesque, 
characterized by the rounded arch and the dome ; but towards the 
close of the twelfth century this was superseded by the Gothic, 
distinguished by the pointed arch, the slender spire, and rich 
ornamentation. 

The mediaeval cathedrals were, like the Crusades, the outgrowth 
of a faith and enthusiasm that animated all classes alike. Many 
of the structures were the result of the united toil of generation 
after generation. The expense was met in various ways. Rich 
monasteries made large contributions ; city councils voted con- 
stant appropriations ; kings made grants, or exempted from taxa- 
tion cities and provinces that would undertake the erection of a 
church or cathedral ; the Church collected vast sums by the sale 
of indulgences ; while the bequests of the dying, and the offerings 
of the people, in labor and products, swelled the streams of con- 
tribution. 

Nothing is more expressive of spirit than the mediaeval Gothic 
cathedral. In every part it is instinct with the faith and hope of 
the builder. It is a prayer, a holy aspiration in stone. " Is it not 
an expression," asks the Church historian Alzog, " of that deep 
and pervading sentiment of the human soul which struggles with 
a holy and yearning enthusiasm to mount to the throne of the 
Most High ? . . . The same spirit breathes in the pointed cathe- 
dral arch as in the pages of the ' Following of Christ.' " 

The enthusiasm, we have said, was universal ; yet nowhere did 
it find nobler or more sustained expression than in Germany. 
Among the most noted of the German cathedrals are the one at 
Strasburg, begun in the eleventh century, and that at Cologne, 
commenced in 1248, but not finished until our own day (in 1880). 
This latter structure has been made to epitomize German history 
as well as Gothic art. " In its long, wearisome, and frequently 
interrupted growth, it may be regarded as a symbol of the history 
of the German nation, so long divided and weak, at length united 
and strong." 



332 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

Germany during the Interregnum (12 54-1 2 7 3). 

The Seven Electors. — In order that we may understand the 
transactions of this period, we must say a word here about the Elec- 
tors of the Empire. When, in the beginning of the tenth cen- 
tury, the German Carolingian line became extinct, the great nobles 
of the kingdom assumed the right of choosing the successor of the 
last of the House, and Germany thus became an elective feudal 
monarchy. In the course of time a few of the leading nobles 
usurped the right of choosing the king, and these princes became 
known as Electors. There were, at the end of the Hohenstaufen 
period, seven princes who enjoyed this important privilege, four of 
whom were secular princes and three spiritual. This electoral body 
really held the destinies of Germany in its hands. 

Sale of the Imperial Crown. — We are now in a position to 
understand the most shameful transaction of the sale of the Im- 
perial crown. The Electors, like the pretorians of ancient Rome, 
put the bauble up for sale. There were two bidders, both for- 
eigners, Richard of Cornwall, brother of the English king, Henry 
III., and Alphonso, king of Castile. Both candidates offered to 
the Electors large bribes, and so both were elected. Although 
Alphonso had manifested so much anxiety to secure the honor, he 
never once set his foot within the limits of Germany, and Richard 
contented himself with an occasional visit to the country. 

Of course neither of the nominal kings or Emperors possessed 
any real authority in Germany, or in any of the countries claimed 
as parts of the Empire. The period is known in German history 
as the Interregnum. Anarchy prevailed throughout the country: 
Princes made themselves petty despots in their dominions, while 
the lesser nobles became robbers, and preyed upon travelers and 
traders. 

Towns and Free Imperial Cities. — The kingly power having 
fallen into such utter contempt that all general government was 
practically in abeyance, the towns, which through the gradual ex- 
pansion of their trade had grown vastly in population, wealth, and 



CHARACTER OF THE PERIOD. 333 

consequent importance, found it necessary, in order to protect 
themselves against the violence and oppression of the princes and 
barons, to form confederations, and take their defense in their own 
hands. Thus during this anarchical period the Hanseatic League, 
organized about the middle of the thirteenth century, grew rapidly 
in strength and influence. About the same time that the Hanse 
Confederation was established, was formed the famous Rhenish 
League, which finally came to embrace more than seventy towns. 

It will be well for us here to say a word about the two classes, 
"mediate" and "immediate," into which the towns were divided. 
The first depended upon some prince or lord, who was in turn 
dependent upon the king. The second were dependent solely 
upon the king, were his immediate vassals. In these latter cities 
the king was represented by a special officer, but during the course 
of the thirteenth century many of these immediate towns, through 
the favor of their suzerain, were relieved of the presence of the 
royal bailiff, and became what are known as Free Imperial Cities. 
They of course still acknowledged the suzerainty of the king, but 
were allowed to manage their local affairs to suit themselves, and 
thus became practically little commonwealths, somewhat like the 
city-republics of Italy. 

A century or two after these cities had secured freedom from the 
royal superintendence, they acquired the right of representation in 
the Diet, or national legislative body. This was the natural conse- 
quence of their growing power, just as in England the increasing 
weight of the towns led, in the thirteenth century, to the admission 
of their representatives to Parliament. These deputies of the Free 
Cities constituted what was known as the "Third College" of the 
national assembly. 

Germany under Different Houses. 

Character of the Period (1273-1438). — The Interregnum 
was ended by the Electors choosing as king Rudolf (1 273-1 291), 
Count of Hapsburg, an insignificant state in Switzerland. He re- 
ceived the royal crown at Aachen, but did not think it worth his 



334 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

while to cross the Alps that he might receive the Imperial crown at 
the hands of the Pope. " Rome," he said, "is like the lion's den 
in the fable — one may see the footsteps of many who have gone 
there, but of none who have come back." 

There is nothing to lend unity to the century and a half upon 
which we now enter. The Imperial crown was passed from one 
family to another, the House of Luxemburg, however, being four 
times honored by the bestowal of the dignity upon its members. 
The German princes were opposed to a strong, centralized govern- 
ment, and the chief care of the Electors seemed to be to choose 
for the Imperial office weak princes, in order that their own inde- 
pendence might not be endangered. The office was openly bought 
and sold, and once there were as many as three rival emperors 
ruling or pretending to rule at the same time. 

The most noteworthy circumstances of the period are the steadily 
growing power of the House of Hapsburg, the wars between the 
princes of this family and the Swiss, whom they attempted to sub- 
jugate, the promulgation of the Golden Bull by the Luxemburg 
Emperor Charles IV., and the religious movement of the Hussites 
in Bohemia, a warning note of the approaching Reformation. 

Austria becomes a Possession of the Hapsburgs. — Rudolfs 
rival for the Imperial dignity was Ottocar, king of Bohemia, the 
most powerful prince of the Empire. He was greatly disappointed 
in not receiving the crown, and though repeatedly summoned to 
do so, steadfastly refused to acknowledge Rudolf as his superior 
and suzerain. The result of his obstinacy was a war which resulted 
in his death and the acquisition by Rudolf of Austria, Styria, Car- 
niola and Carinthia, lands which Ottocar had ruled in addition to 
the kingdom of Bohemia. These countries Rudolf bestowed upon 
his two sons, the elder of whom, Albert, took the title of " Duke 
of Austria." Thus was laid the basis of the power and influence 
of the famous House of Hapsburg. 

The Swiss League and the Dukes of Austria. — A very con- 
siderable part of the story of the Dukes of Austria is intimately 
connected with the rise of the Swiss Republic. Lying among the 



THE SWISS LEAGUE AND THE DUKES OF AUSTRIA. 335 

northeastern Alps, and embracing some of the castles and estates 
of the Dukes, were the cantons or districts of Schwyz, Uri, and 
Untenvalden. These mountain lands formed part of the Empire, 
but their liberty-loving people acknowledged no man as their mas- 
ter save the Emperor, under whose protection they were, and to 
whom they yielded a nominal obedience, like that of the Free Im- 
perial Cities. Following the example of the times, they had formed 
a defensive union, which came to be known as the Old League of 
High Germany. The attempts of the Dukes of Austria to unite 
these cantons to their hereditary domains led to a most protracted 
and memorable struggle between them and the brave mountaineers ; 
a contest which, in many of its features, reminds us of that carried 
on between the United Netherlands and their Spanish sovereigns. 

The contest was begun by the Duke Albert whom we mentioned 
in the preceding paragraph, and who was at this time the German 
king. He succeeded in subjugating the three cantons ; but the 
harshness of the rule of his bailiff caused an uprising, which resulted 
in the expulsion of the Austrians. To this period belongs the 
legend of William Tell, which historical criticism now pronoun- 
ces a myth, with nothing but the revolt as the nucleus of fact. 

In the early part of the fourteenth century the then Duke of 
Austria, Leopold by name, made another determined attempt upon 
the liberties of the Cantons ; but at the famous battle of Morgarten 
Pass (1315) was defeated by the brave Swiss. 

Seventy years later, in 1386, a descendant of Leopold, having 
marched an army among the mountains, sustained a terrible defeat 
on the memorable field of Sempach. It was here that Arnold of 
Winkelried broke the ranks of the Austrians, by collecting in his 
arms as many of their lances as he could, and, as they pierced his 
breast, bearing them with him to the ground, exclaiming, " Com- 
rades, I will open a road for you." 

Shortly after the battle of Sempach, the Eidgenossen, or Confede- 
rates, as the Swiss were at this time called, gained another victory 
over the Austrians at Wafels, which placed on a firm basis the 
growing power of the League. 



336 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

One effect upon the Swiss of their long struggle for liberty was 
the fostering among them of such a love for fighting that, when, at 
a later period, there was lack of warlike occupation for them at 
home, the Swiss soldiers hired themselves out to the different sov- 
ereigns of Europe ; and thus it happened that, though trained in 
the school of freedom, these sturdy mountaineers became the most 
noted mercenary supporters of despotism. 

The Golden Bull (1356). — We have noticed how seven of the 
great princes of Germany usurped the privilege of choosing the 
Emperor. This right, however, was disputed by some of the other 
members of the Germanic body. In order to settle the matter for- 
ever, the Luxemburg Emperor Charles IV. (134 7-1 3 7 7), having 
first secured the action of a Diet, promulgated a decree called the 
Golden Bull, from the gold case in which its seal was kept, which 
confirmed the right of election in the princes (three ecclesiastical 
and four secular) who then exercised it, and defined clearly the 
powers and privileges of the electoral college. This famous bull 
remained the fundamental law of the German constitution so long 
as the Empire lasted — until 1806. It greatly enhanced the dig- 
nity and power of the Seven Electors, and proportionately weak- 
ened the Imperial authority. 

The Hussites. — About the beginning of the fifteenth century the 
doctrines of the English reformer Wycliffe began to spread in Bohe- 
mia. The chief of the new sect was John Huss, a professor of the 
University of Prague. This leader was excommunicated by the 
Pope, and afterwards upon the meeting of the great Council of 
Constance, he was cited before it, just as Luther a century later 
was summoned to appear before the Diet of Worms. The doc- 
trines of the reformer were condemned by the Council, and Huss 
himself sentenced to the flames (1415). The following year 
Jerome of Prague, another reformer, was likewise burned at the 
stake by order of the same body. 

The most infamous part of this affair was the imprisonment and 
harsh treatment of Huss before his conviction ; for this was in 
direct violation of the safe-conduct which the Emperor Sigismund 



MAXIMILIAN I. 337 

had given him, relying upon which the reformer had come to the 
Council. 

Shortly after the burning of FIuss and Jerome, the throne of 
Bohemia became vacant through the death of Wenceslaus ; and 
Sigismund, laying claim to the same, proclaimed a crusade against 
the followers of Huss. Then began a cruel, desolating war of nf : 
teen years, the final outcome of which was the almost N total exter- 
mination of the radical party among the Hussites. With the more 
moderate of the reformers, however, who were known as Calixtini- 
ans, a treaty was made which secured them freedom of worship. 

Germany under the House of Austria (1438-15 19). 

The Imperial Crown becomes Hereditary. — In the year 1438 
Albert II. of Austria was raised by the Electors to the Imperial 
throne. His accession marks an epoch in German history, for, 
from this time on, for four centuries, until the dissolution of the 
Empire by Napoleon, the Imperial crown was regarded as hered- 
itary in the Hapsburg family, the Electors, although never failing 
to go through the formality of an election, almost always choosing 
one of its members as king. 1 " The election was merely a sanction 
given to hereditary right." 

From the beginning of the virtually uninterrupted succession upon 
the Imperial throne of the princes of the House of Austria up to the 
close of the Middle Ages, the power and importance of the family 
steadily increased, until it seemed that Austria would overshadow 
all the other German states, and subject them to her sway ; would, 
in a word, become Germany, much as Francia in Gaul had become 
France. 

Maximilian I. (1493-15 19). — The greatest of the Hapsburg 
line during the mediaeval period was Maximilian I. He was a man 
calculated to win admiration and awaken hope, and was strong in 
the affections of the Germans. He was generous, bold, and chiv- 
alrous, but impulsive and sometimes imprudent. Yet his reign on 

1 The two exceptions were Charles VII. (of Bavaria), 1 742-1 745, and Fran- 
cis I. (of Lorraine), 1 745-1 765. 



338 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

the whole was a wise and able one, and contributed much to the 
consolidation of the Imperial power. 

The Imperial Chamber. — It was the year after the accession of 
Maximilian that Charles VIII. of France made his famous invasion 
of Italy. His movements were viewed with great jealousy by the 
Emperor, who lent a willing ear to the calls of the Italian cities 
and the Pope for help ; for though these parties were very averse 
to yielding any obedience to the Emperor, they were ready enough 
to call upon him for assistance in times of trouble. Maximilian, 
in order that he might act with the whole power of Germany, 
assembled a Diet at Worms, which body, when gathered, persisted 
in first attending to home matters, before considering foreign 
affairs. There were in this assembly wise and patriotic princes 
and bishops, who, weary of the incessant private wars waged by the 
states against one another and neighboring powers, insisted upon 
the body-adopting some measure which would bring security and 
internal order to the German nation. Notwithstanding the bitter 
opposition of many members of the Diet, who clung to their cus- 
tom of levying war whenever and against whomsoever they liked 
as a pet privilege, a Perpetual National Peace was declared, and 
all the states and cities were strictly prohibited from waging pri- 
vate war. Every matter of dispute was to be referred to an 
Imperial Court, consisting of a president and sixteen councilors. 
The president was named by the Emperor, but the councilors 
were to be chosen by the states. The whole authority of the 
Empire was to be employed against any one who resisted the deci- 
sions of the Court. The expenses of the tribunal were to be met 
in the main by a tax levied upon all the states of the Germanic 
body. 

The formation of this Court is a matter of interest and note ; for 
though it did not fulfil all the expectations of those who urged its 
establishment, it at least revealed the profound longing among 
many throughout Germany for peace and unity. It was an effort 
for that unification of the " Fatherland " which France, England, 
and Spain had already in a fair degree attained, but which Ger- 



MAXIMILIAN'S REIGN A TRANSITION ACT. 339 

many was destined to wait three centuries and more before seeing 
realized as to itself. 

The Wars of Maximilian. — The greater number of the wars in 
which Maximilian was engaged were in some way connected with 
the attempts of the Spanish and French sovereigns to establish 
their authority in Italy. His efforts to secure the cooperation of 
the various German states were not very successful, as they held 
that the Emperor had no claims upon their assistance save in wars 
affecting directly the interests of the German kingdom ; and con- 
sequently he was obliged to carry on his campaigns, for the most 
part, with such resources as were yielded by his hereditary posses- 
sions. These being inadequate to enable him to act effectively, 
the part which he played upon the public arena of Europe was 
neither very conspicuous nor successful. 

In a war against the Swiss League, to punish them for extending 
aid to France in Italy, and to force them to recognize the authority 
of the Imperial Court, Maximilian was defeated, and was forced to 
sign a treaty which acknowledged the League to be free from the 
jurisdiction of the Imperial Chamber (1499). This peace really 
established the independence of the Swiss Confederation, and gave 
it a place as a distinct state among the powers of Europe. Yet it 
was not formally separated from the Empire until the Peace of 
Westphalia in 1648. 

The Ten Districts. — The better to maintain order, to enforce 
the decrees of the Diet, and to carry into effect the decisions of 
the Imperial Chamber, all Germany was divided into Ten Circles, 
or Districts, each of which had a Board of Councilors and a judi- 
cial chief. This w r as another step towards unification, another 
movement aiming at the creation of a strong, centralized govern- 
ment. But everything was yet too local ; there were yet too many 
conflicting interests and selfish ambitions among the different 
states to permit the measure to accomplish much in the way of the 
nationalization of the German body. 

Maximilian's Reign a Transition Age. — The reign of Maxi- 
milian marks the close of the mediaeval age in Germany. Max- 



340 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

imilian is sometimes called the "Last of the Knights," but he may 
with equal propriety be regarded as the representative of the new 
order of tilings which characterizes the Modern Age. He created 
a permanent military force to take the place of the old feudal 
levies ; introduced the post-office for the transmission of letters ; 
and established a general police system. Thus his reign is in every 
way a noteworthy one for Germany, marking, as it does, a strong 
tendency to centralization, the material enhancement of the Impe- 
rial authority, and the secure establishment of that power as an 
hereditary possession in the hands of the princes of the ambitious 
House of Hapsburg. 

Beginning of German Literature. 

The Niebelungen Lied. — It was under the patronage of the 
Hohenstaufen that Germany produced the first pieces of a 
national literature. The Niebelungen Lied, or the Lay of the 
Niebelungen, is the great German mediaeval epic. It was reduced 
to writing about 1200, being a recast, by some Homeric genius 
perhaps, of ancient German and Scandinavian legends and lays 
dating from the sixth and seventh centuries. The hero of the 
story is Siegfried, the Achilles of Teutonic legend and song. The 
names and deeds of Attila, Theodoric, and other warriors of the 
age of the Wanderings of the Nations are mingled in its lines. 

This great national epic romance may be likened to the poem 
Beowulf of our Saxon ancestors. It is harsh and brutal, filled 
with fierce fightings and horrible slaughters — a reflection of the 
rude times that gave it birth. But there is plainly manifested in it 
a spirit of sincerity and seriousness. 

The Minnesingers. — Under the same Emperors, during the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Minnesingers, or lyric poets, 
flourished. They were the "Troubadours of Germany." Refined 
and tender and chivalrous and pure, the songs of these poets 
tended to soften the manners and lift the hearts of the German 
people. 



THE RISK OK MUSCOVY. 341 



V. Russia. 



Beginnings of Russia. — We have already seen how, about the 
middle of the ninth century, the Swedish adventurer Ruric became 
the chief of some Slavonian and Finnish tribes dwelling near the 
Baltic, and there laid the foundation of what was to grow into one 
of the leading powers of Europe. The empire came to be known 
as Russia, from the word Rus, the name given by the Finns to the 
foreigners. In the course of a few generations the Norse intruders 
were thoroughly Slavonized, becoming completely identified in 
speech, manners, tastes, and sympathies with the people over whom 
fortune had called them to rule. The descendants of Ruric grad- 
ually extended their authority over adjoining tribes, until nearly all 
the northwestern Slaves were embraced by their growing empire. 
In the tenth century Russia received Christianity, adopting the 
Greek form from Constantinople. 

Disunion and Civil Wars. — In the eleventh century a sort of gav- 
elkind law of inheritance came to prevail in the Russian monarchy, 
whereby the dominions of the successors of Ruric were divided 
and subdivided among the children of the successive sovereigns, 
and the unity and power of the empire thus completely destroyed. 
The monarchy became a mere confederacy of jealous and warring 
tribes. This state of things prepared the way for the overwhelming 
calamity which befell Russia in the thirteenth century. 

The Tartar Conquest. — The misfortune to which we refer was 
the overrunning and conquest of the country by the Tartar hordes 
of Ginghis Khan and his successors. The barbarian conquerors 
inflicted the most horrible atrocities upon the unfortunate land, and 
for more than two hundred years held the Russian princes in a de- 
grading bondage, forcing them to pay homage and tribute. This 
period, like that of the Shepherd Kings in the story of Egypt, is a 
perfect blank in Russian history. The misfortune delayed for 
centuries the nationalization of the Slavonian peoples. 

The Rise of Muscovy. — During the period of Tartar domina- 
tion, the Slavonian state of Muscovy, so called from Moscow, its 



342 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

centre and capital, was growing into power and prominence. The 
suzerainty of its ruler, who bore the title of Grand Duke, was, it 
must be borne in mind, formally recognized by the Turanian chiefs. 
While it and the other petty Russian principalities were still subject 
to the Khan of the Golden Horde, as the head of the Tartar tribes 
was called, it had gradually extended its dominions until it became 
easily the first among all the Slavonian states. In 1470 the prince 
of Moscow annexed Novgorod the Mighty to his dominions. This 
new Russian power now felt strong enough to throw off the Tartar 
yoke. 

Russia freed from the Mongols. — It was under Ivan the 
Great (1462-1505) that Russia, — now frequently called Muscovy 
from the fact that it had been reorganized with Moscow as a centre, 
— after a terrible struggle, succeeded in freeing itself from the 
hateful Tartar domination, and began to assume the character of a 
well- consolidated monarchy. 

Ivan was the first to take the title of " Czar and Autocrat of all the 
Russias." He improved the laws, and labored to introduce into 
his kingdom the civilization of the more advanced European na- 
tions. Through his marriage to a niece of Constantine Palaeologus, 
the last Byzantine Emperor, Russia was drawn into connection 
with Greek culture and learning. Moscow, in as true a sense as the 
cities of Italy, became an asylum for those Greek scholars whom 
the progress of the Ottoman power during the closing mediaeval 
century drove from the schools and universities of the East. 

Thus by the end of the Middle Ages, Russia had become a 
really great power ; but she was as yet too completely hemmed in 
by hostile states to be able to make her influence felt in the affairs 
of Europe. Between her and the Caspian and Euxine were the Tar- 
tars ; shutting her out from the Baltic were the Swedes and other 
peoples ; and between her and Germany were the Lithuanians and 
Poles. 

VI. Italy. 

No National Government. — In marked contrast to all those 
countries of which we have thus far spoken, unless we except Ger- 



RIENZI, TRIBUNE OF ROME. 343 

many, Italy came to the close of the Middle Ages without a na- 
tional or regular government. This is to be attributed in large part 
to that unfortunate rivalry between Pope and Emperor which re- 
, suited in dividing Italy into the two hostile camps of Guelph and 
Ghibelline. And yet the mediaeval period did not pass without 
attempts on the part of patriot spirits to effect some sort of politi- 
cal union among the different cities and states of the peninsula. 
The most noteworthy of these movements, and one which gave 
assurance that the spark of patriotism which was in time to flame 
into an inextinguishable passion for national unity was kindling in 
the Italian heart, was that headed by the famous hero Rienzi in 
the fourteenth century. 

Rienzi, Tribune of Rome (1347). — During the greater part of 
the fourteenth century the seat of the Papal See was at Avignon, 
beyond the Alps. Throughout this period of the " Babylonish cap- 
tivity," Rome, deprived of her natural guardians, was in a state of 
the greatest confusion. The nobles, prominent among whom were 
the families of the Orsini and Colonna, terrorized the country 
about the capital, and kept the streets of the city itself in constant 
turmoil with their bitter feuds. Every part of the capital was dom- 
inated by their fortified residences. The ancient monuments were 
made to serve as strongholds, and thus these memorials of an- 
tiquity suffered greater damage from the mediaeval barons than had 
ever been inflicted upon them by barbarian conquerors. 

In the midst of these disorders there appeared from among the 
lowest ranks of the people a deliverer in the person of one Nicola 
di Rienzi. With imagination all inflamed from long study of the 
records and monuments of the freedom and glory of ancient Rome, 
he conceived the magnificent idea of not only delivering the capi- 
tal from the wretchedness of the prevailing anarchy, but also of 
restoring the city to its former proud position as head of Italy and 
mistress of the world. 

Possessed of considerable talent and great eloquence, Rienzi 
easily incited the people to a revolt against the rule, or rather mis- 
rule, of the nobles, and succeeded in having himself, with the title 



344 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

of Tribune, placed at the head of a new government for Rome. 
In this position his power was virtually absolute. He forced the 
nobles into submission, and in a short time effected a most won- 
derful transformation in the city and surrounding country. Order 
and security took the place of disorder and violence. The best 
days of republican Rome seemed to have been suddenly restored. 
The enthusiasm of the Roman populace knew no limits. The 
remarkable revolution drew the attention of all Italy, and of the 
world beyond the peninsula as well. 

Encouraged by the success that had thus far attended his 
schemes, Rienzi now began to concert measures for the union of 
all the principalities and commonwealths of Italy in a great repub- 
lic, with Rome as its capital. He sent ambassadors throughout 
Italy to plead, at the courts of the princes and in the council- 
chamber of the municipalities, the cause of Italian unity and free- 
dom. 

The splendid dream of Rienzi was shared by other Italian 
patriots besides himself, among whom was the poet Petrarch, who 
was the friend and encourager of the " plebeian hero." " Could 
passion have listened to reason," says Gibbon, "could private 
welfare have yielded to the public welfare, the supreme tribunal 
and confederate union of the Italian republic might have healed 
the intestine discord, and closed the Alps against the barbarians of 
the North." 

But the moment for Italy's unification had not yet come. Not 
only were there hindrances to the national movement in the am- 
bitions and passions of rival parties and classes, but there were still 
greater impediments in the character of the plebeian patriot him- 
self. Rienzi proved to be an unworthy leader. His sudden 
elevation and surprising success completely turned his head, and 
he soon began to exhibit the most incredible vanity and weakness. 
He caused himself to be crowned with seven crowns, emblematic 
of the seven gifts of the spirit, and assumed the title of " Deliverer 
of Rome ; Defender of Italy ; Friend of Mankind, and of Liberty, 
Peace, and Justice ; Tribune August." 



THE RENAISSANCE. 345 

The natural consequences of the Tribune's extravagant follies 
were soon reached. The people withdrew from him their support ; 
the Pope, now that it was safe to do so, excommunicated him as a 
rebel and heretic ; and the nobles rose against him. Abdicat- 
ing his office, Rienzi now went into exile. After an absence from 
the city of six years, he was sent back by the Pope (he had 
become reconciled with the Church) as his minister, with the title 
of Senator ; but after a rule of a few months he was assassinated, 
in a sudden uprising of the people. 

Thus vanished the dream of Rienzi and Petrarch, of the hero 
and the poet. Centuries of division, of shameful subjection to 
foreign princes, — French, Spanish, and Austrian, — of wars and 
suffering, were yet before the Italian people ere Rome should 
become the centre of a free, orderly, and united Italy. 

The Renaissance. — Though the Middle Ages closed in Italy 
without the rise there of a national government, still before the end 
of the period much had been done to awaken those common ideas 
and sentiments upon which political unity can alone safely repose. 
Literature and art here performed the part that war did in other 
countries in arousing a national pride and spirit. The Renaissance, 
with its revelations and achievements, discovering the Italians to 
themselves, did much towards creating among them a common 
pride in race and country; and thus this splendid literary and 
artistic enthusiasm was the first step in a course of national devel- 
opment which was to lead the Italian people to a common political 
life. 

Upon the literary phase of the Italian Renaissance we have said 
something in the chapter on the Revival of Learning \ we will here 
say just a word respecting the artistic side of the movement. 1 

The most splendid period of the art revival covered the latter 
part of the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth. The 
characteristic art of the Renaissance in Italy was painting, although 
the aesthetic genius of the Italians also expressed itself both in 

1 For what follows, we are largely indebted to Symonds's admirable work, 
The Fine Arts, in his series entitled The Renaissance in Italy. 



346 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 

architecture and sculpture. 1 The mediaeval artists devoted them- 
selves to painting instead of sculpture, for the reason that it best 
expresses the ideas and sentiments of Christianity. The art that 
would be the handmaid of the Church needed to be able to 
represent faith and hope, ecstasy and suffering, — none of which 
things can well be expressed by sculpture, which is essentially the 
art of repose. Sculpture was the chief art of the Greeks, because 
among them the aim of the artist was to represent physical beauty 
or strength. But the problem of the Christian artist is to express 
spiritual emotion or feeling, through the medium of the body. 
These cannot be represented in cold, colorless marble. Thus, as 
Symonds asks, " How could the Last Judgment be expressed in 
plastic form?" The chief events of Christ's life removed Him 
beyond the reach of sculpture. 

Therefore, because sculpture has so little power to express 
emotion, painting, which runs so easily the entire gamut of feeling, 
became the chosen medium of expression of the Italian artist. 
His subjects at first were drawn chiefly from the legends of 
mediaeval Christianity. He sought to portray the raptures of the 
saint, the sweet charm of the Madonna, the intense passion of the 
Christ, the moving terrors of the Last Judgment. 

With the Renaissance, classical elements were blended with 
Christian ideals, and art became paganized. At the same time 
it was liberalized, and in insisting upon beauty as being an end 
worthy in itself, it antagonized the teachings of ascetic Chris- 

1 The four supreme masters of the Italian Renaissance were Leonardo da 
Vinci (1452-1519), Michael Angelo (1475-1564), Raphael (1483-1520), and 
Titian (1477-1576). All were great painters. Perhaps the one of greatest, 
at least of most varied, genius, was Michael Angelo, who was at once architect, 
painter, and sculptor. His grandest architectural triumph was the majestic 
dome of St. Peter's, — which work, however, he did not live to see completed. 
His best paintings, probably, are the wonderful frescoes of the Last Judgment, 
in the Sistine Chapel at Rome. As a sculptor, he forced sculpture to do what 
it is not wont to do, — to use the emotional language of painting; that is, he 
cut in marble thoughts and feelings that less masterful genius than his must 
needs express by means of painting. 



SAVONAROLA. 347 

tianity, and helped to lift men into the freedom of the new age. 
Thus teaching the world the joyousness of physical existence, the 
art of the Renaissance was one of the angels that led man out of 
the dungeon in which Monasticism had immured him. 

Savonarola (1452-1498). — A word must here be said respect- 
ing the Florentine monk and reformer Girolamo Savonarola, who 
stands as the most noteworthy personage in Italy during the clos- 
ing years of the mediaeval period. 

Savonarola was at once Roman censor and Hebrew prophet. 
Such a preacher of righteousness the world had not seen since 
the days of Elijah. He denounced the Medici as the enslavers 
and corrupters of Florence ; thundered against the iniquities of 
the infamous Borgias at Rome ; fought to counteract the pagan 
tendencies of the Renaissance ; hurled denunciations against the 
profligacy of the monks ; and prophesied the wrath of God on 
Florence, Italy, and all the world on account of the degeneracy 
of the Church and the paganism and vices of the times. 

His powerful preaching alarmed the conscience of the Floren- 
tines. At his suggestion the women brought their finery and 
ornaments, and others their beautiful works of art, and piling them 
in great heaps in the streets of Florence, burned them as vanities. 
Savonarola even urged that the government of Florence be made 
a theocracy, and Christ be proclaimed king. But, finally, the 
activity of his Florentine enemies and the machinations of the 
Pope, the detestable Alexander VI., brought about the reformer's 
downfall, and he was condemned to death, executed, and his 
body burned. 

Savonarola may be regarded as the last great mediaeval fore- 
runner of the reformers of the sixteenth century. With the flames 
of his martyrdom went out the light of religious reform in Europe 
until rekindled once more by the holy fervor of a monk beyond 
the Alps. 



348 SECOND PERIOD.— THE AGE OF REVIVAL. 



VII. The Northern Countries. 

The Union of Calmar. — The great Scandinavian Exodus of the 
ninth and tenth centuries drained the Northern lands of some of 
the best elements of their population. For this reason these 
countries did not play as prominent a part in mediaeval history 
as they would otherwise have done. The constant contentions 
between their sovereigns and the nobility were also another cause 
of internal weakness. 

In the year 1397, by what is known as the Union of Calmar, the 
three kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were united 
under Margaret of Denmark, " the Semiramis of the North." 
The treaty provided that each country should make its own laws. 
But the treaty was violated, and though the friends of the measure 
had hoped much from it, it brought only jealousies, feuds, and 
wars. 

The Swedes arose again and again in revolt, and finally, under 
the lead of the famous noble Gustavus Vasa, made good their 
independence (1523). The patriot Gustavus awakened in his 
countrymen a deep sense of nationality, and thus helped vastly to 
bring Sweden prominently forward among the forming nations of 
Europe. During the seventeenth century, under the descendants 
and successors of the Liberator, Sweden was destined to play an 
important part in the affairs of the continent. 

Norway became virtually a province of Denmark, and the 
Norwegian nobles were driven into exile or killed. The country 
remained attached to the Danish Crown until the present century. 



Part II. 

MODERN HISTORY. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Beginning of the Modern Age. — The discovery of America 
by Columbus in 1492 is usually allowed to mark the end of the 
Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Era. And this was 
an event of such transcendent importance, — the effect upon civiliza- 
tion of the opening up of fresh continents was so great, — that we may 
very properly accord to the achievement of the Genoese the honor 
proposed. Yet we must bear in mind that no single circumstance 
or event actually marks the end of the old order of things and the 
beginning of the new. The finding of the Western Hemisphere 
did not make the new age ; the new age discovered the New 
World. The undertaking of Columbus was the natural outcome 
of that spirit of commercial enterprise which for centuries — ever 
since the Crusades — had been gradually expanding the scope of 
mercantile adventure, and broadening the horizon of the Euro- 
pean world. His fortunate expedition was only one of several 
brilliant nautical exploits which distinguished the close of the 
fifteenth and the opening of the sixteenth century. 

This same period was also marked by significant intellectual, 
political, and religious movements, which indicated that civiliza- 
tion was about to enter — indeed had already entered — upon a 
new phase of its development. In the intellectual world was 
going on, as we have seen, the wonderful Revival of Learning, 



350 INTRODUCTION. 

producing everywhere unwonted thought, stir, and enterprise ; in 
the political world the tendency to centralization that had long 
been at work was culminating in the formation of great nations 
and strong monarchical governments, founded upon the ruins of 
Feudalism ; in the religious world there were unrest, dissatisfac- 
tion, inquiry, complaint, — premonitory symptoms of the tremen- 
dous revolution that was destined to render the sixteenth century 
memorable in the religious records of mankind. 

And in connection with these movements we must not fail to 
notice how they were being aided by various great inventions and 
discoveries. Thus the intellectual and religious revival was greatly 
promoted by the new art of printing ; the kings in their struggle 
with the nobles were materially aided by the use of gunpowder, 
which rendered useless armor and castle, and transformed the 
feudal levy into a regular standing army ; while the great ocean 
voyages of the times were rendered possible only by the improve- 
ment of the mariner's compass, 1 whose trusty guidance embold- 
ened the navigator to quit the shore and push out upon hitherto 
untraversed seas. 

The Two Periods: their Chief Characteristics. — Standing at 
the opening of the new age, and casting a glance over the broad- 
ening field of history, we are bewildered by the infinite number 
and variety of circumstances which rise to view, and make up the 
quickly shifting scenes of the deepening drama. We shall avoid 
utter confusion amidst the multitude of details that crowd upon 
us, only by fixing our attention upon the chief characteristics of the 
age, — by noting what are the leading ideas and principles at 
work. These we have already indicated in the general introduc- 
tion to our work, where we divided modern history into two 

1 It is a disputed question to what people should be given the credit of the 
discovery or invention of the magnetic needle. The instrument was certainly 
known in Europe among the Mediterranean navigators as early as the thir- 
teenth century; but it does not appear to have been much used by them until 
they sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in the fourteenth century, and 
opened trade with the countries of the Baltic. 



DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD BY COLUMBUS. 351 

periods, the Era of the Protestant Reformation and the Era of 
the Political Revolution, and so it is not necessary to dwell upon 
them here. We need simply to remind the reader that the first 
period, extending from the opening of the sixteenth century to 
the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, is characterized by the revolt 
of the nations of Northern Europe against the spiritual jurisdic- 
tion of Rome, and the great combat between Protestantism and 
Catholicism ; and that the second period, running from the Peace 
of Westphalia to our own day, is distinguished by the contest be- 
tween the People and their rulers, or, in other words, by the 
conflict between liberal and despotic principles of government. 

These two revolutionary epochs are intimately connected. " Re- 
bellion and heresy," as Buckle observes, "are but different forms 
of the same disregard of tradition, the same bold and independent 
spirit. Both are of the nature of a protest made by modern ideas 
against old associations." 

As introductory to the history of the Modern Age, we shall 
speak briefly of the great geographical discoveries of Columbus, 
Vasco da Gama, and Magellan, and of the beginning of European 
conquests and settlements in the New World, as these great events 
lie at the opening of the era and form the prelude of its story. 
These matters, though seemingly disconnected from the general 
course of events in Europe, were in fact most significantly related 
to them. These wonderful discoveries, widening and liberalizing 
men's thoughts, helped on greatly the mental and religious revolu- 
tion of the times ; the finding of new pathways for commerce pro- 
moted vastly the commercial enterprise of the European world, 
and changed entirely the relations and relative importance of 
nations ; while the opening up in the Western Hemisphere of 
virgin continents for the development of new social and political 
institutions, potent in their reflex influence upon Europe, had a 
most important bearing upon the Old-World conflicts of creeds 
and theories of government. 

Discovery of the New World by Columbus (1492). — Chris- 
topher Columbus was one of those Genoese navigators who, when 



352 INTR OD UC TION. 

Genoa's Asiatic lines of trade were broken by the irruption of the 
Turks, conceived the idea of reaching India by an ocean route. 
While others were endeavoring to reach that country by sailing 
around the southern point of Africa, he proposed the bolder plan 
of reaching this eastern land by sailing directly westward. 

The sphericity of the earth was a doctrine held by many at this 
time ; but it was contrary to the teachings of the Church, and so 
it was not safe for one to publish too openly one's belief in the 
notion. 

Everybody knows how Columbus in his endeavors to secure a 
patron for his enterprise met at first with repeated repulse and 
disappointment ; how at last he gained the ear of Queen Isabella 
of Spain ; how the little fleet was fitted out for the explorer ; and 
how the New World was found. 

The return of Columbus to Spain with his vessels loaded with 
the strange animal and vegetable products of the new land he had 
found, together with several specimens of the inhabitants, — a new 
race of men to Europeans, — produced the profoundest sensation 
among all classes. Curiosity was unbounded. The spirit of ad- 
venture awakened among Spanish navigators and knights by the 
surprising discovery, led to those subsequent nautical, military, and 
colonial undertakings by Castilian adventurers which make up the 
most thrilling pages of Spanish history. 

Columbus never received a fitting recognition of the great ser- 
vice he had rendered the world. Even the continent he had dis- 
covered, instead of being called after him as a perpetual memorial, 
was named from a Florentine navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, whose 
chief claim to this distinction was his having written the first ac- 
count of the new lands. 

The Voyage of Vasco da Gama (1497-1498). — While Colum- 
bus was seeking India by sailing westward, Portuguese navigators 
were endeavoring to reach it by sailing around the southern cape of 
Africa. The favorable position of Portugal upon the Atlantic sea- 
board naturally led her sovereigns to conceive the idea of com- 
peting with the Italian cities for the trade of the East Indies, by 



THE VOYAGE AROUND THE GLOBE BY MAGELLAN. 353 

opening up an ocean route to those lands. During all the latter 
part of the fifteenth century Portuguese sailors were year after year 
penetrating a little further into the mysterious tropical seas, and 
exploring new reaches of the western coast of Africa. 

Finally, in 1487, Bartholomew Diaz succeeded in reaching the 
most southern point of the continent, which was named Cape of 
Good Hope, as the possibility of reaching India by sea now 
seemed assured. A decade later Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese 
admiral, doubled the Cape, crossed the Indian Sea, and finally 
landed on the coast of Malabar (1498). 

The discovery of a water-path to India effected, as we have al- 
ready noticed, most important changes in the traffic of the world. 
It made the ports of Portugal and of other countries on the Atlantic 
seaboard the depots of the Eastern trade. " The front of Europe 
was suddenly changed." The Italian merchants were ruined. 
The great warehouses of Egypt and Syria were left empty. The 
traffic of the Mediterranean dwindled to insignificant proportions. 
Portugal established factories and colonies in the East, and built 
up there a great empire, — like that which England is maintaining 
in the same region at the present day, — and, through the extra- 
ordinary impulse thus given to the enterprise and ambition of her 
citizens, now entered upon the most splendid era of her history. 

The Voyage around the Globe by Magellan (15 19-15 22). 
— Remarkable and bold as were the voyages of Columbus and of 
Vasco da Gama, these were now to be eclipsed by the still more 
adventurous enterprise of the circumnavigation of the globe by the 
Portuguese navigator Magellan. 

The voyage of Magellan was inspired by the following circum- 
stances. Upon the return of Columbus from his successful expe- 
dition, Pope Alexander VI., with a view to adjusting the conflicting 
claims of Spain and Portugal, issued a bull, wherein he divided the 
world by a meridian line drawn through the Atlantic one hundred 
leagues west of the Azores (the line was afterwards moved 270 
leagues further west), and gave to the Spanish sovereigns all un- 
claimed pagan lands that their subjects might find west of this line, 



354 INTR OD UC TION. 

and to the Portuguese kings all new pagan lands discovered by 
Portuguese navigators east of the designated meridian. These 
grants were made on the principle at this time maintained by the 
Popes that the sovereignty of the world, and preeminently that 
part of it occupied by pagans, had been given to them, and that 
they might bestow it upon whomsoever they would. 

Sooner or later, of course, disputes between Spain and Portugal 
were bound to arise respecting the title to lands discovered by 
Spanish navigators sailing westward, and also reached by Portu- 
guese ships sailing to the east. 

It was a contention regarding the valuable Spice Islands of 
the Pacific which led to the famous voyage of Magellan. These 
islands were claimed by the Portuguese, but were coveted by the 
king of Spain. If they could only be reached by a ship sailing to 
the west, then Spain could make a good title to them under the 
terms of the Papal bull. To accomplish this an expedition was 
organized and entrusted to the command of Magellan, a Portu- 
guese admiral, who had left the service of his native country on 
account of some personal slight. The little fleet of five vessels 
sailed from Spain in the year 15 19, and began the most adventu- 
rous voyage in the entire record of nautical enterprise. 

Magellan directed his fleet in a south-westerly course across the 
Atlantic, hoping to find towards the south a break in the land dis- 
covered by Columbus, through which he could force his ships into 
the waters beyond. Near the most southern point of Patagonia 
he found the narrow strait that now bears his name. Through 
this channel the bold sailor pushed his vessels, and found himself 
upon a great sea, with a blank horizon to the west. From the 
calm, unruffled face of the new ocean, so different from the 
stormy Atlantic, he gave to it the name Pacific. 

The voyage of these first intruders from the Old World upon 
the unknown sea, beneath the strange constellations of the south- 
ern skies, was one of almost incredible sufferings, endured with 
the bravest fortitude. " In the whole history of human under- 
takings," says Draper, "there is nothing that exceeds, if, indeed, 



THE COX QUEST OF MEXICO. 355 

there is anything that equals, this voyage of Magellan's. That of 
Columbus dwindles away in comparison." 

Finally, on November 8th, 15 21, the fleet reached one of the 
Spice Islands, and the following year arrived home, after an 
absence of three years and one month. Envious fortune did not 
allow Magellan to enjoy the triumph of the success of the expe- 
dition. He was killed, either by his mutinous sailors, or by the 
natives of one of the South Sea islands, at which the fleet touched. 
His lieutenant, who conducted the fleet home, was presented by 
the Spanish sovereign with a medal, in the form of a globe, fitly 
encircled with this legend : Primus circumdedisti vie — "You first 
went about me." 

Results of Magellan's Voyage. — The results of the circum- 
navigation of the earth were chiefly of an intellectual or moral 
character. It broadened the mental even more than the physical 
horizon of the world. All the old narrow geographical ideas were 
pushed aside. It settled forever the question as to the shape of 
the earth and its place in the universe. It revolutionized whole 
systems of thought and belief. Thus, as the Church, through 
Popes and councils, had committed itself to the doctrine that the 
earth is flat, and denounced as irreverent and heretical any view 
differing from this, the demonstration of its sphericity was, of 
course, a severe blow to the claims of infallibility put forward by 
the Bishops of Rome, and was one of the many things which 
helped to foster the growing spirit of revolt against their assumed 
authority over the opinions and beliefs of men. 

The Conquest of Mexico (15 19-152 1). — The accounts of 
Spanish explorations and conquests in the lands opened up by 
the fortunate voyage of Columbus, read more like a romance than 
any other chapter in history. They tell of men growing old while 
hunting through strange lands for the Fountain of Youth ; of 
expeditions lost for years to the knowledge of men, while search- 
ing beneath gloomy forests for El Dorado, the " Golden Land " ; 
of explorations upon seas and amidst mountains never before 
looked upon by men of the Old World \ of voyages on ocean- 



356 INTR OD UCTION. 

like rivers which led, no one knew where ; and of ancient and 
opulent empires conquered, and their enormous accumulations of 
gold and silver seized by a few score of adventurous knights. 1 

Perhaps the most brilliant exploit in which the Spanish cava- 
liers engaged during this period of daring and romantic adven- 
ture was the conquest of Mexico. 

Reports of a powerful and affluent "empire" upon the main- 
land to the west, were constantly spread among the Spanish 
colonists who very soon after the discovery of the New World 
settled the islands in the Gulf of Mexico. These stories inflamed 
the imagination of adventurous spirits among the settlers, and an 
expedition was organized and placed under the command of 
Hernando Cortez for the conquest and " conversion " of the 
heathen nation. 

Before telling of the fortunes of the expedition, we must say a 
word about the State against which it was directed. 

What appears in the accounts of the Spanish chroniclers as the 
"Mexican Monarchy," or the "Empire of the Montezumas," was 
really only a sort of league, or confederacy, — something like the 
Iroquois confederacy in the North, — formed of three Indian 
tribes. 2 Of these the Aztecs were the leading tribe, and gave 
name to the confederacy. At the head of the league stood a 
sachem, or war-chief. 

The Aztecs, at the time of the discovery of America, had 
reached what is called the " middle state " of barbarism. They 
employed a system of picture-writing somewhat like the hiero- 

1 Juan Ponce de Leon started on his romantic expedition in search of the 
fabled spring in 1512 ; Vasco de Balboa discovered the Pacific in 15 13; Her- 
nando de Soto, while searching for El Dorado, found the Mississippi, in 1541 ; 
and the same year Francisco Orellana descended the eastern slope of the 
Andes to the Napo, floated down that stream to the Amazon, and then drifted 
on down to the sea. 

2 It is now very generally conceded that Prescott's conception of the Mexi- 
can State, especially as to its political organization, must be very materially 
modified to bring it into harmony with the actual facts. Consult Morgan's 
Ancient Society, chap. VII. 



THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 357 

glyphical system of the Iroquois, and of other North-American 
Indian tribes: Their religion was a sort of sun-worship. They 
were cannibals, and offered human victims in their sacrifices. 
They had no knowledge of the horse or ox, and were totally 
ignorant of the use of fire-arms. They held their kinds in com- 
mon, and lived in communal or joint-tenement houses, which 
were large enough to accommodate from ten to one hundred 
families. It was these immense structures which the Spanish 
writers described as " palaces " and " public edifices." These 
buildings were, doubtless, the same in plan as those to be seen at 
the present day among the Pueblo Indians of the southwestern 
part of the United States. 

The Pueblo of Mexico, the chief city of the Aztec tribe, was 
founded, according to tradition, in 1325. It was situated upon an 
island in the midst of the largest of the lakes that diversify the 
famous Valley of Mexico. Long causeways, running through the 
shallow swamps, connected the city with the mainland. The 
population of the town at the time of the Spanish invasion was 
probably about 20,000 or 30,000. 

Such was the State which Cortez, with a force of five or six 
hundred foot-soldiers, twelve light cannon, and sixteen horsemen, 
set out to conquer. If this little company seems to us out of all 
proportion to the proposed undertaking, we must recall that with 
the Spanish cavaliers the days of chivalry were not yet over. 
Prospective toil and danger only tended to raise to a higher pitch 
of enthusiasm the adventurous spirits of these knights of fortune. 

There were, however, several circumstances in favor of the 
adventurers ; but of these the daring cavaliers knew nothing when 
they set out upon their enterprise. One of these was the real 
weakness of the Indian State, which, as we have seen, was not a 
great military monarchy as the Spaniards supposed, but simply a 
feeble league with easily-broken bonds. Furthermore, the sur- 
rounding tribes were hostile to the confederacy, and ready to join 
the Spaniards in their attack upon it. And still a third circum- 
stance favoring the invaders, was the state of religious feeling 



358 INTR OD UC TION. 

among the Indians. About this time they were expecting the 
return of a good deity, who, as their traditions told, had long 
before sailed away from the country, towards the rising sun, leav- 
ing behind him the promise that he would one day return to 
resume the sceptre and set up a glorious reign. 

We shall see how, by making allies of the enemies of the con- 
federacy, and by a deceptive use of the religious expectations of 
the Aztecs themselves, the Spaniards, though in number but a 
mere handful, were enabled quickly to subjugate the State. 

We can give here only the merest outline of the experiences 
and exploits of Cortez and his companions. W T ith his little army 
augmented by the addition of several thousand friendly natives 
from among the Tlascalans, a tribe first encountered by the 
Spaniards, Cortez marched towards Mexico. Although Monte- 
zuma, the war-chief of the confederacy, was trembling with fear 
at the Spaniards' approach, he dared not openly oppose their 
march, and upon their arrival at Mexico received the strangers 
from another world as his guests. They represented that they 
were the envoys of a mighty sovereign, who reigned in lands 
toward the rising sun, and who rightly claimed allegiance of all 
the peoples of the earth. The weak Montezuma was made to 
believe that this great monarch was the good deity (Quetalcoatl) 
of whom the traditions of his race told. 

Worked upon thus by fear and religious feeling, Montezuma 
swore allegiance to the Spanish monarch, and then sent collectors 
to the various pueblos of the confederacy and its dependencies 
to gather tribute for his new master. A vast treasure was collected, 
chiefly in costly articles of gold and silver, amounting, it is said, 
to $6,000,000. Reserving a small portion of the treasure as the 
royal share, Cortez divided the remainder among his companions. 

Fearing an uprising of the Indians, the Spaniards now seized 
Montezuma in his own palace, and held him as a hostage for the 
good conduct of his people. But driven to desperation, the 
Indians elected a new chief, and made an attack upon the Spanish 
quarters, in the course of which Montezuma was killed. Cortez 



THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 359 

now resolved upon a retreat from the city, under cover of night. 
The flight, however, was discovered, and the Spaniards were able 
to make good their escape only after terrific losses. Fortunately 
they found a temporary refuge among the friendly Indians of 
Tlascala. 

Having recruited his thinned ranks, Cortez once more advanced 
upon the capital. After a long siege the city fell into his hands. 
The chief, Guatimozin, was captured, and afterwards put to death. 
Those of the natives that the siege had spared were permitted to 
leave the city. It was then cleansed, and the empty houses were 
taken possession of by the Spaniards and their allies. The heathen 
temples were torn down, and Christian chapels erected upon their 
sites. The issue of the siege inclined the superstitious natives to 
abandon the worship of their own gods, that had proved so pow- 
erless or treacherous in the hour of need, and to crowd in multi- 
tudes to be baptized and to receive the sign of the cross. 

Thus almost in a day did Mexico become a Christian city, and 
a possession of the Spanish crown. 

The Conquest of Peru (1532-15 36). — The story of the con- 
quest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro is almost a repetition of the 
story of the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, save that it is a record 
stained with greater heartlessness and treachery. 

The civilization of the Peruvians was superior to that of the 
Aztecs. Not only were the great cities of the empire filled with 
splendid temples and palaces, but throughout the country were to 
be seen magnificent works of public utility, such as roads, l bridges, 

1 There were two roads running from Quito to Cuzco, the two chief cities 
of the empire, one leading down the Andean plateau, and the other conducting 
the traveler over the lowlands of the coast. Each was from fifteen hundred 
to two thousand miles in length. The average width was twenty feet. The 
more difficult sections were paved with enormous blocks of stone, or were 
coated with a bituminous cement. The roadways were carried across rivers 
and torrents by means of suspension bridges formed of twisted lianoes, or 
vines. Respecting these great highways Humboldt the traveler declares that 
"they are among the most stupendous works ever executed by man." Like 
the similar roads of the Romans, these highways have fallen into decay, and 



360 INTRODUCTION. 

and aqueducts. 1 The government of the Incas, the royal or ruling 
race ; was a mild, parental autocracy. 

Glowing reports of the enormous wealth of the Incas, the com- 
monest articles in whose palaces, it was asserted, were of solid 
gold, reached the Spaniards by way of the Isthmus of Darien, and 
it was not long before an expedition was organized for the con- 
quest of the country. The leader of the band was Francisco 
Pizarro, an iron-hearted, cruel, unscrupulous, perfidious, and illit- 
erate adventurer. 

It so happened that just at this time the kingdom of the Incas 
was weakened by internal dissensions. Two brothers, Huascar 
and Atahualpa by name, to whom their royal father had given the 
empire in equal shares, were engaged in civil war. The latter had 
defeated and was holding in captivity his brother, when Pizarro, 
advancing boldly into the country, with less than two hundred 
men, made, through treachery, a prisoner of Atahualpa right in 
the very presence of his army ; and then, to strike terror into the 
minds of the natives, massacred a large number of them. 

The captive Inca offered, as a ransom for his release, to fill the 
room in which he was confined " as high as he could reach " with 
vessels of gold. Pizarro accepted the offer, and the palaces and 
temples throughout the empire were stripped of their golden ves- 
sels, and the apartment was filled with the precious relics. The 
value of the treasure is estimated at over $17,000,000. When 
this vast wealth was once under the control of the Spaniards, they 
seized it all, and then treacherously put the Inca to death (1533). 

With the death of Atahualpa the power of the Inca dynasty 
passed away forever ; and within a few years after the Spaniards 

at the present time only a fragment here and there bears evidence of the labor 
and care involved in their construction. 

1 The populousness of the empire led to the careful cultivation of every 
patch of the mountain soil, the steep flanks of the hills being terraced as high 
up as vegetation flourishes. Irrigation was secured by means of an extensive 
system of aqueducts and canals. Some of these conduits were from four hun- 
dred to five hundred miles in length. 



SPANISH COLONIZATION IN THE NEW WORLD. 361 

had first set foot upon the continent, all the extensive realms once 
embraced within the limits of the Peruvian monarchy had become 
a part of the domains of the Spanish king. 1 

Spanish Colonization in the New World. — Not until more 
than one hundred years after the discovery of the Western Hem- 
isphere by Columbus, was there established a single permanent 
English settlement within the limits of what is now the United 
States, the portion of the New World destined to be taken pos- 
session of by the peoples of Northern Europe, and to become the 
home of civil and religious freedom. 

But into those parts of the new lands opened up by Spanish 
exploration and conquest there began to pour at once a tremen- 
dous stream of Spanish adventurers and colonists in search of 
fortune and fame. It was a sort of Spanish migration. What took 
place was something like the inrush of a Greek population into 
Western Asia after the Macedonian conquests, or like the influx of 
Roman traders and colonists into Gaul, Spain, and other countries 
opened up by the arms of Rome. Or, again, the movement 
might be compared to the rush of population from the Eastern 
States to California, after the announcement of the discovery 
there of gold, in 1848-9. 

Upon the West India Islands, in Mexico, in Central America, 
all along the Pacific slope of the Andes, and everywhere upon the 
lofty and pleasant table-lands that had formed the heart of the 
empire of the Incas, there sprang up rapidly great cities as the 
centres of mining and agricultural industries, of commerce and 
of trade. Often, as in the case of Mexico, Quito, and Cuzco, 
these new cities were simply the renovated, enlarged, and rebuilt 
capitals or towns of the conquered natives ; while in other in- 

1 For years, however, the empire was the scene of the most bitter rivalries 
and contentions among the adventurers who had conquered it, and others 
who, attracted by the stories of the wealth that had been found, crowded into 
the country to share the spoils. In one of these quarrels which arose be- 
tween Pizarro and some of his officers, he was killed at Lima (which city he 
had founded), in the seventieth year of his age (1541). 



362 INTR OD UC TION. 

stances, as in the case of Panama, Guayaquil, and Santiago, the 
Spanish cities were laid upon entirely new foundations. 

Thus did a Greater Spain grow up in the New World. Before 
the close of the sixteenth century the dominions of the Spanish 
monarch in the Western Hemisphere formed of themselves a 
magnificent empire, and were the source, chiefly through the 
wealth of their gold and silver mines, of a vast revenue to the 
royal exchequer. It was, in a large measure, the treasures 
derived from these new possessions that enabled the sovereigns of 
Spain to play the imposing part they did in the affairs of Europe 
during the century following the discovery of America. 1 

Having thus hurriedly examined one source of Spanish great- 
ness and reputation, it will be one of our aims in a following 
chapter to give some idea of the way in which this power and 
influence and prestige were used by the sovereigns of Spain in the 
maintenance of ecclesiastical and civil despotism. 

1 After having robbed the Indians of their wealth in gold and silver, the 
slow accumulations of centuries, the Spaniards further enriched themselves 
by the enforced labor of the unfortunate natives. Unused to such toil as was 
exacted of them under the lash of worse than Egyptian task-masters, the 
Indians wasted away by millions in the mines of Mexico and Peru, and upon 
the sugar plantations of the West Indies. More than half of the native popu- 
lation of Peru is thought to have been consumed in the Peruvian mines. To 
save the Indians, negroes were introduced as a substitute for native laborers. 
This was the beginning of the African slave-trade in the New World. The 
traffic was especially encouraged by a benevolent priest named Las Casas 
(1474-1566), known as the "Apostle of the Indians." Thus the gigantic 
evil -of African slavery in the Western Hemisphere, like the gladiatorial 
shows of the Romans, was brought into existence, or, rather, in its beginning 
was fostered, by a philanthropic desire and effort to mitigate human suffering. 



THIRD PERIOD. — THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT 
REFORMATION. 

(FROM THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, IN 1648.) 



CHAPTER I. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION UNDER LUTHER. 

Introductory. — While Columbus and other adventurers were 
exploring the earth's unknown seas and opening up a New Hemi- 
sphere for civilization, the distinguished Copernicus was exploring 
the heavens and discovering the true system of the universe. 1 Thus, 
at nearly the same time, were men's views of the earth and their 
conceptions of the heavens surprisingly modified and enlarged. 

We bring together these great discoveries in the physical realm, 
in order simply to help the memory by connecting them with 
the far more significant discoveries made at about the same 
time in the spiritual world. The sixteenth century had but fairly 
opened when Luther discovered the New World of the Spirit, and 
by leading men out into its freedom ushered in a new age — the 
ever-memorable Era of the Protestant Reformation. The events 
of this new era we are now to study. 

1 Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) had quite fully matured his heliocentric 
theory of the universe by the year 1507, but fearing the charge of heresy, he 
did not publish the great work embodying his views until thirty-six years later 
( in 1543)- 



364 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

The Reformation defined. — The Reformation in its essential 
characteristics was a protest against the formalism and abuses, and 
a revolt against the authority, of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Viewed as to the first essential, it was a renascence of primitive 
Christianity, and bore the same relation to mediaeval Christianity 
that the classical revival bore to mediaeval Scholasticism. Just 
as the Humanists charged the Schoolmen with having corrupted 
and misinterpreted the classical languages, literatures, and philos- 
ophy, and to sustain the indictment produced the original manu- 
scripts ; so did the reformers complain that the Roman Catholic 
Church had corrupted and made of none effect by its traditions 
and ceremonies the Word of God, and to prove the charge pro- 
duced the original Hebrew and Greek Testaments. Thus the 
Reformation on this side was a movement of the human spirit 
seeking a purer and freer, a more personal and spiritual worship. 

Viewed as to the second essential, it was an insurrection against 
Papal and priestly authority, a severance by half the nations of 
Europe of the bonds that united them to the ecclesiastical empire 
of Rome, and a transfer of their allegiance from the Church to the 
Bible. The decrees of Popes and the decisions of Councils were 
no longer to be regarded as having divine and binding force ; the 
Scriptures alone were to be held as possessing divine and infal- 
lible authority, and this rule and standard of faith and belief the 
reformers were to interpret for themselves. 

Extent of Rome's Spiritual Authority at the opening of the 
Sixteenth Century. — In a preceding chapter on the Papacy it 
was shown how perfect at one time was the obedience of the West 
not only to the spiritual, but to the temporal, authority of the Pope. 
It was also shown how the Papal claim of the right to dictate in 
temporal or governmental affairs was practically rejected by the 
princes and sovereigns of Europe as early as the fourteenth century. 
But previous to the opening of the sixteenth century there had 
been comparatively few — though there had been some, like the 
Albigenses in the south of France, the Wickliffites in England, and 
the Hussites in Bohemia — so hardy as to deny the supreme and 



CAUSES OF THE REFORMATION. 365 

infallible authority of the Bishops of Rome in all matters touching 
religion. All murmurs and dissent had been suppressed by the 
sword and the fagot, so that speaking in a very general manner it 
would be correct to say that at the close of the fifteenth century 
all the nations of Western Europe professed the faith of the Latin or 
Roman Church and yielded spiritual obedience to the Papal See. 

Causes of the Reformation. — The causes which brought about 
the Reformation were many. Among others may be mentioned 
the great mental awakening which marked the close of the medi- 
aeval and the opening of the modern age. The effect of this intel- 
lectual revival was twofold. The Humanists either fell into religious 
indifference and skepticism, or, restating their creeds, which they 
found in conflict with the new learning, reached worthier and 
higher beliefs. We see the same thing going on to-day. The 
rapid advance of science is creating an apparent conflict between 
knowledge and belief. The result is either the flinging aside 
of all creeds, or the modification of them so as to bring faith 
into harmony with present knowledge. Now this is just what hap- 
pened at the time of the Renaissance. The Humanists of Italy 
threw aside all beliefs, while the Luthers and Colets and Mores 
and Erasmuses and Melanchthons of the more serious North, re- 
formed and thus preserved their creeds. And all this was inevi- 
table. The dogmas of the Church were unreasonable, and 
everything unreasonable must give way before awakening reason. 
Thus the intellectual revival, though often spoken of, in so far as it 
concerned the Northern nations, as an effect of the religious revival, 
was in reality at once cause and effect. It hastened the Refor- 
mation, and was itself hastened by it. 

A second cause was the open and shameless profligacy of the 
clergy and monastic orders, and the dissolute and rapacious char- 
acter of many of the Popes themselves, 1 which greatly tended to 

1 The Papacy reached its deepest degradation in the pontificate of Alex- 
ander VI. (Roderigo Borgia, 1493-1503), who seated himself in the Papal 
chair through the most shameless bribery. His conduct was simply execrable. 
All the members of his family, including his notorious daughter Lucrezia, were 
prodigies of infamy and crime. 



366 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

destroy in men's minds the reverence they had been accustomed 
to entertain for representatives of the Church, and to lead to ques- 
tioning and criticism. Further, the claims of the Popes to the right 
to interfere in the internal, governmental affairs of a nation, — for, 
although these claims had been rejected by the sovereigns of 
Europe, they were nevertheless persistently maintained by the 
Roman Bishops, — fostered the jealousy and opposition of the 
temporal princes. 

Again, the art of printing, just now brought to perfection, had a 
powerful effect in hastening on the revolution. It scattered broad- 
cast over Europe the Bible, and, as men began to read the book 
for themselves, they began to doubt the Scriptural authority for 
many of the doctrines and ceremonies of the church — such as the 
adoration of the Virgin, the worship of saints, the use of images, 
confession to a priest, the nature of the elements in the eucharist, 
and various other matters in belief and practice. 

But foremost among the proximate causes, and the actual oc- 
casion of the revolution, was the controversy which arose about 
the sale of indulgences. These were certificates of forgiveness of 
sins, granted by the Pope for a sum of money. This power to for- 
give sins, claimed by the Bishops of Rome, was supported in great 
measure by the declaration of Christ to Peter — " Whosesoever 
sins ye remit, they are remitted to them." 

Indulgences were at first granted to persons who preferred to 
pay a sum of money rather than perform certain penances imposed 
upon them by the Church. In this form they were simply com- 
mutations of punishment. But in the eleventh century they took 
a somewhat different form, when Pope Urban II., in order to in- 
duce persons to engage in the enterprise of the rescue of the Holy 
Sepulchre, offered indulgences to all who assumed the Cross. 
Afterwards they were granted for a special sum of money by vari- 
ous Pontiffs, as a means of raising funds for pious enterprises. A 
considerable portion of the money for building the Cathedral of St. 
Peter at Rome was raised in this manner. 

Tetzel and the Sale of Indulgences. — Leo X., upon his elec- 



TETZEL AND THE SALE OE INDULGENCES. 367 

tion to the Papal dignity in 15 13, found the coffers of the Church 
almost empty, and being in pressing need of money to (any on 
his various undertakings, among which was work upon St. Peter's, 
he had recourse to the now common expedient of a sale of indul- 
gences. He delegated the power of dispensing these in Germany 
to the archbishop of Madgeburg, who employed a Dominican friar 
by the name of Tetzel, an energetic but dissolute man, as his dep- 
uty for selling the papers in Saxony. 1 

The archbishop was unfortunate in the selection of his agent. 
Tetzel carried on his traffic in a very zealous, but most scandal- 
ous manner. The language that he used in exhorting the people 
to come and buy salvation -for themselves and their friends was 
unseemly and imprudent. He declared that " the souls confined 
in Purgatory, for whose redemption indulgences are purchased, as 
soon as the money tinkles in the chest, instantly escape from that 
place of torment and fly upward." 

Persuaded by such representations, the credulous multitude 
eagerly exchanged their money for the wares of the zealous friar. 
But the offensive manner in which the traffic was conducted, as 
well as the shameful behavior of Tetzel and his associates, who 
wasted in riotous living much of the money that came into their 

1 The form of these indulgences was as follows: "May our Lord Jesus 
Christ have mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy 
passion. And I, by his authority, that of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, 
and of the most holy pope, granted and committed to me in these parts, do 
absolve thee, first from all ecclesiastical censures, in whatever manner they 
have been incurred, and then from all thy sins, transgressions, and excesses, 
how enormous soever they may be, even from such as are reserved for the 
cognizance of the holy see ; and as far as the Keys of the Holy Church extend, 
I remit to you all punishment which you deserve in purgatory on their account 
and I restore you to the holy sacraments of the Church, to the unity of the 
faithful, and to that innocence and purity which you possessed at baptism ; so 
that, when you die, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the 
paradise of delight shall be opened ; and if you shall not die at present, this 
grace shall remain in full force when you are at the point of death. In the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Prescott's 
Robertson's Charles (he Fifth, Vol. 1. p. 461, note. (Phila. 1881.) 



368 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

hands, awakened among the better classes abhorrence and disgust, 
and led many to declaim against the whole proceeding as unscrip- 
tural, scandalous, and wicked. These protests were the near 
mutterings of a storm that had long been gathering, and was soon 
to shake all Europe from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. 

Martin Luther. — Foremost among those who opposed and 
denounced the traffic carried on by Tetzel was Martin Luther, an 
Augustine monk, and a teacher of theology in the University of 
Wittenberg. This great reformer was born in Saxony in 1483. 
He was of humble parentage, his father being a poor miner. The 
boy possessed a good voice, and frequently, while a student, earned 
his bread by singing from door to door. " This is God's way," 
he himself afterwards wrote, " of beggars to make men of power, 
just as he made the world of nothing." He seems to have stood 
in need of frequent correction, for we are told of his being whipped 
fifteen times in a single forenoon. The natural bent of his mind, 
and, if we may believe a somewhat doubtful legend, the death of a 
friend struck down at his side by lightning, led him to resolve to 
enter a monastery and devote himself to the service of the Church. 
Before Tetzel appeared in Germany, Luther had already earned a 
wide reputation for learning and piety. 

But years of study, reflection, and mental conflict within the 
cloister, had awakened in Luther's mind doubts and questionings 
as to many of the doctrines of the Church. Especially was there 
gradually maturing within him a conviction that the entire system 
of ecclesiastical penances and indulgences was unbiblical and 
wrong. His last lingering doubt respecting this matter appears 
to have been removed while, during an official visit to Rome in 
15 10, he was penitentially ascending on his knees the sacred stairs 
(sca/a santa) of the Lateran, when he seemed to hear an inner 
voice declaring, "The just shall live by faith." 

The Ninety-five Theses. — The form which Church penances 
had taken in the hands of Tetzel and his associates, making sins 
past and prospective an article of merchandise, was so opposed to 
reason and the teachings of the Scriptures, that Luther determined 



THE DIET OF worms. 369 

to make an appeal to the conscience and intelligence of the world. 
He drew up ' ninety-five theses, or articles, wherein he fearlessly 
stated his views respecting indulgences. These theses, written in 
Latin, he nailed to the door of the Church at Wittenberg, and 
invited all scholars to examine and criticise them, and to point out 
if in any respect they were opposed to the teachings of the Word 
of God, or of the early fathers of the Church (15 17). 

By means of the press the theses were scattered with incredible 
rapidity throughout every country in Europe, and the eagerness 
with which they were read and commented upon by all classes 
showed how thoroughly events had prepared men's minds for the 
reception of the truths so boldly and eloquently proclaimed by 
Luther. The eyes of all Europe were turned upon the man who 
thus dared to throw down the gauntlet to the Pope, and brave the 
thunders of the Church. The Reformation had found its leader 
and champion. 

Burning of the Papal Bull (1520). — All Europe was now 
plunged into a perfect tumult of controversy. Luther, growing 
bolder, was soon attacking the entire system and body of teachings 
of the Roman Church. The sympathies of a great part of the 
people, particularly in Northern Europe, were plainly on his side. 
Finally, in 1520, Leo issued a bull against the reformer. His writ- 
ings were condemned as heretical, and all persons were forbidden 
to read them ; and he himself, if he did not recant his errors within 
sixty days, was to be seized and delivered to the Church for pun- 
ishment. 

Luther was not dismayed. He denounced Leo as the Antichrist 
of Revelation, and publicly burnt the papal bull at one of the gates 
of Wittenberg. 

The Diet of Worms (152 1). — Leo now invoked the aid of the 
recently elected Emperor Charles the Fifth in extirpating the 
spreading heresy. The Emperor, to whom the friendship of 
the Pope was a matter of much concern and importance, com- 
plied by summoning Luther before the Diet of Worms, an assem- 
bly of the princes, nobles, and clergy of Germany, convened for 



370 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OE THE REFORMATION. 

deliberating upon the affairs of Germany, and especially upon 
matters touching the great religious controversy. Replying to 
friends who tried to dissuade him from exposing himself by obey- 
ing the summons, Luther made this notable utterance : "I would 
go, though there were as many devils there as there are tiles on 
the roofs of the houses." 

Called upon in the Imperial assembly to recant his errors, Luther 
steadily refused to do so, unless his teachings could be shown to 
be inconsistent with the Bible. Although some wished to deliver 
the reformer to the flames, the safe-conduct of the Emperor under 
which he had come to the Diet protected him, Charles, when urged 
to arrest him, replying, " No, I will not blush like Sigismund at 
Constance." 1 So Luther was allowed to depart in safety, but was 
followed by a decree of the assembly which pronounced him a 
heretic and outlaw. 

But Luther had powerful friends among the princes of Germany, 
one of whom was his own prince, Frederick the Wise, Elector of 
Saxony. Solicitous for the safety of the reformer, the prince 
caused him to be seized on his way from the Diet by a company 
of masked horsemen, who carried him to the castle of the Wart- 
burg, where he was kept about a year, his retreat being known 
only to a few friends. During this period of forced retirement 
from the world, Luther was hard at work upon his celebrated 
translation of the Bible. 

The Peasants' War (1524-15 25). — Before quite a year had 
passed, Luther was called from the Wartburg by the troubles 
caused by a new sect that had appeared, known as the Anabap- 
tists, whose excesses were casting great discredit upon the whole 
reform movement. Luther's sudden appearance at Wittenberg 
gave a temporary check to the agitation. 

But in the course of two or three years the trouble broke out 
afresh, and in a more complex and aggravated form. To under- 
stand properly the new trouble, we must take a glance at the 

1 See above, p. 336. 



THE REFORMERS ARE CALLED PROTESTANTS. 371 

condition of the German peasantry. In no other country of 
Europe was the lot of the peasant so hard as in Germany. Whilst 
almost everywhere else he had become free, here he was a serf — 
the slave of his feudal lord. He was forbidden to hunt or to fish. 
Fine days he must work for his lord, and take rainy days to tend 
to his own crops. On holidays he was liable to be ordered to 
pick berries or gather snails "for the folks at the castle." When 
he died, his lord came and took away from the widow and her 
children the customary heriot — the best animal or implement. 
The clergy, instead of exerting themselves to render more tolerable 
the lot of the poor peasants, only made it harder by the tithes 
they exacted, and by the vexatious and burdensome charges they 
imposed for services that should have been the free services of 
love. 1 

Stung to madness by the oppressions under which they groaned, 
stirred by the religious excitement that filled the air, and influ- 
enced by the incendiary preaching of their prophets Carlstadt and 
Miinzer, the peasants of Suabia and Franconia rose in revolt 
against the nobles and priests. Castles and monasteries were 
sacked and burned, and horrible outrages were committed. The 
rebellion was finally crushed, but not until 100,000 lives had 
been sacrificed, a large part of South Germany ravaged, and great 
reproach cast upon the reformers, whose teachings were held by 
their enemies to be the whole cause of the ferment, — another 
illustration of how easy it is for partisans to confuse occasion with 
cause. 

The Reformers are called Protestants. — Notwithstanding all 
the efforts that were made to suppress the doctrines of Luther, 
they gained ground rapidly, and in the year 1529 another assem- 
bly, known as the Second Diet of Spires, was called to consider 
the matter. This body issued an edict forbidding all persons from 
doing anything to promote the spread of the new doctrines, until a 
general council of the Church should have investigated them and 
pronounced authoritatively upon them. 

1 Seebohm's Era of the Protestant Revolution, ]>. 34. 



372 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

Seven of the German princes, and a large number of the cities 
of the Empire, issued a formal protest against the action of the 
Diet, denying its power or authority thus to bind men's judg- 
ment and conscience. Because of this protest, the reformers 
from this time began to be known as Protestants. 

Death and Character of Luther. — Luther died in the year 
1546, leaving behind him his wife, whom twenty years before he 
had married, as he declared, " to please his father, to tease the 
Pope, and to vex the Devil." Beyond all controversy, he was 
the greatest man of the sixteenth century. By his iron will and 
rugged strength he drew one half of Europe from the communion 
of the Roman Church, and gave an impulse to free thought which 
has profoundly affected all political as well as religious history 
from his day to our own. " His character is easily understood.- 
Whatever he said and did, he said and did with all his might. 
Throughout his whole life he was an open-hearted German." 

It was in the reformer's rude strength, bold energy, and terrible 
earnestness that his greatness lay. His preeminence consisted not 
in his scholarship and learning, for the reformer Calvin was his 
superior in these ; not in prudence, for his friend Melanchthon 
excelled him here. He describes himself — and no one has done 
it so well as he — " as rough, boisterous, stormy, and altogether 
warlike, born to fight innumerable devils and monsters, to remove 
stumps and stones, to cut down thistles and thorns, and to clear 
the wild woods." 

Causes that checked the Progress of the Reformation. — Even 
before the death of Luther, 1 the Reformation had gained a strong 

1 After the death of Luther the leadership of the Reformation in Germany 
fell to Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), one of Luther's friends and fellow- 
workers. Melanchthon's disposition was exactly the opposite of Luther's. 
" He differed from him as the quiet stream of the meadows from the wild 
mountain torrent, or as the gentle St. John from the fiery St. Paul. . . . The 
one was the Hero, and the other the Theologian of the German Reformation." 
Melanchthon often reproved Luther for his indiscretion and vehemence, and 
was constantly laboring to effect, through mutual concessions, a reconciliation 
between the Roman Catholics and Protestants. Although he lived to see the 






DIVISIONS AMONG THE PROTESTANTS. 373 

foothold in most of the countries of Western Christendom, save in 
Spain and Italy, and even in these parts the new doctrines had 
made some progress. It seemed as if the revolt from Rome was 
destined to become universal, and the old ecclesiastical empire to 
be completely broken up. 

But several causes now conspired to check the hitherto tri- 
umphant advance of Protestantism, and to confine the movement 
to the Northern nations. Chief among these were the divisions 
among the Protestants, the increased activity of the Inquisition, and 
the rise of the Order of the Jesuits. 

Divisions among the Protestants. — Early in the contest with 
Rome, the Protestants unfortunately became divided into numer- 
ous and hostile sects. In Switzerland arose the Zwinglians (fol- 
lowers of Ulrich Zwingle, 1484-153 1), who differed from the 
Lutherans in their views regarding the Eucharist, and on some 
other points of doctrine. In the same country arose also the 
famous sect of the Calvinists, followers of John Calvin (1509-15 64), 
a Frenchman by birth, who, forced to flee from France on account 
of persecution, found a refuge at Geneva, of which city he became 
finally a sort of Protestant pope. 1 

The great Protestant communions finally broke up into a large 
number of denominations, or churches, each holding to some minor 
point of doctrine, or adhering to some form of worship disregarded 
by the others, yet all agreeing in the central doctrine of the Refor- 
mation, "Justification by faith." 

controversy issue in war between the two parties, still he died in the hope that 
the unity of the severed Church would yet be restored. 

1 Calvin was, next after Luther, the greatest of the reformers. The so- 
called " five points of Calvinism are these : Unconditional election ; limited 
ptonement (designed for the elect only) ; the complete impotency of the human 
will; irresistible grace; and the perseverance of believers." Fisher's History 
of the Reformation, p. 474. The doctrines of Calvin came to prevail very 
widely, and have exerted a most remarkable influence upon the general course 
of history. "The Huguenots of France, the Covenanters of Scotland, the 
Puritans of England, and the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, were all the 
offspring of Calvinism." 



374 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

Now the contentions between these different sects were sharp 
and bitter. The liberal-minded reformer had occasion to lament 
the same state of things as that which troubled the apostle Paul in 
the early days of Christianity. One said, I am of Luther ; another 
said, I am of Calvin ; and another said, I am of Zwingle. Even 
Luther himself denounced Zwingle as a heretic ; and the Calvin- 
ists would have no dealings with the Lutherans. 

The influence of these sectarian strifes and divisions upon the 
progress of the reform movement was most disastrous. They 
weakened the Protestant party in the presence of a united and 
vigilant enemy. They afforded the Catholics a strong and effec- 
tive argument against the entire movement as tending to uncer- 
tainty and discord. "The variations of Protestants," as Fisher 
observes, " were depicted in such a way as to inspire the feeling 
that, to renounce the old church was to embark on a tempestuous 
sea, with no star to guide one's path. The timid among the re- 
formers were thus alarmed, drew back, and placed their necks 
again under the yoke of ecclesiastical authority." 

The Protestants being thus weakened by their divisions, the 
Roman Catholics were able, through the employment of extra- 
ordinary means, not only to check the progress of the revolt, but 
even to regain much of the ground that had been lost. The first 
of these means was the Inquisition, or Holy Office. 

The Inquisition. — - This was an ecclesiastical tribunal, the offi- 
cers of which were appointed directly or indirectly by the Pope to 
inquire or search after heretics. Although the Church from the 
time of Constantine had claimed and exercised the right to punish 
heretics, it was not until the great defection of the Albigenses, as 
we have already learned, that the Inquisition proper had its be- 
ginning. After the crusaders under Simon de Montfort had done 
their work upon those apostates, the Pope, Gregory IX., appointed 
a number of monks to search out such as might have escaped the 
sword ; and these officials may be considered as the first regular 
inquisitors (1232). During the latter part of the fifteenth century 
the Inquisition, as we have seen, was set up in Spain, the principal 



THE INQUISITION. 375 

victims of its activity there being the Jews, who, partly because of 
their affiliation with the infidel Moors, were objects of the intensest 
popular hatted. 

When the heresy of Luther overspread Europe and threatened 
completely to undermine the Papal throne, the Holy Office naturally 
assumed new vigor and activity to meet the alarming danger. In 
1542, only a few years before the death of the great reformer, the 
Roman See resolved, in order to combat effectively the spreading 
heresy, to establish the Inquisition in every part of Europe. A 
Papal bull issued that year appointed six cardinals as inquisitors- 
general, with power to search out heretics " on both sides the 
Alps." The tribunal was assisted in the execution of its sentences 
by the secular authorities in all the Romance countries, but outside 
of these it was not generally recognized by the temporal princes, 
though it did succeed in establishing itself for a time in the Nether- 
lands and in some parts of Germany. 

The entire machinery and mode of procedure of the inquisi- 
torial courts were most atrocious. Their appurtenances were dun- 
geons, chains, and ingenious instruments of torture ; their law, 
unrelenting severity towards all misbelievers, death and loss of 
property being the penalty of obstinate heresy. Parents were 
commanded to inform against their children, and children against 
their parents. He who knew of heresy anywhere and did not re- 
veal it, imperiled his own temporal and eternal interests. 

The trial of the accused was the merest mockery. Even the 
name of the person making the charge was withheld from him. 
By the torture of the rack, applied in the subterranean dungeons 
of the tribunal that the cries of the victim might not reach the ears 
of the outside world, were wrung from him confession of crimes he 
had never thought of committing. Death by burning was the fav- 
orite mode of execution, as the temporal flames appropriately 
emblemized the eternal fire awaiting the heretic. The property 
of the condemned was usually divided among the inquisitors, the 
Papal See, and the temporal princes who executed the sentences 
of the Holy Office. 



376 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

This terrible instrument of the Inquisition was employed by the 
Roman See with tremendous effect. Its terrifying processes did 
much to check the advance of the Reformation in Southern 
Europe, and probably did more than any other agency in holding 
Italy and Spain compactly obedient to the Romish faith. 

The Jesuits. — The Order of Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, was 
the next most powerful auxiliary concerned in the reestablishment 
of the tottering throne of the Papal See. The founder of the 
institution was St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), a native of Spain. 
The life and work of this zealous monk left a profound mark upon 
the world. He has been called the " shadow of the Reformation." 
His object was to form a society the devotion and energy of whose 
members should meet the zeal and activity of the reformers, and 
rescue the endangered fortunes of the Papacy. The new order 
was instituted by a bull of Paul III. in 1540. 

To the ordinary monastic vows, the Jesuits added one of im- 
plicit obedience to the Pope. The members of the society must 
go wherever ordered by their superior. And strangely diverse 
were the offices and commissions which might fall to them ; for 
the policy of the order was to control the affairs of the world in 
the interest of the Roman See, by having its members in all social, 
educational, and governmental positions. They became professors 
and private tutors, courtiers, physicians, scientists, merchants, ser- 
vants, beggars, and missionaries. 

And most effectively was the work of the Jesuits done. As the 
well disciplined, watchful, and bitter foes of the Protestant refor- 
mers, now unfortunately divided into many and often hostile sects, 
they did very much to bring about a reaction, to retrieve the failing 
fortunes of the Papal power in Europe, and to extend the authority 
and doctrines of the Roman Church in all other parts of the world. 

Most distinguished of all the missionaries of the order to pagan 
lands was Francis Xavier (1 506-1 562), known as the Apostle of 
the Indies. His labors in India, Japan, and other lands of the 
East were attended with astonishing results. He is said to have 
made 1,000,000 converts. 



GENERAL RESULTS OF THE REFORMATION. 377 

It may here be added, that the principles and methods of the 
Jesuits were destined ultimately, through the jealousy and opposi- 
tion awakened not only among temporal princes, but among the 
other orders of the Roman Catholic Church as well, to inflict 
disaster upon the cause they represented, and to bring much 
trouble upon the Jesuits themselves. 

General Results of the Reformation. — As in following chapters 
we are to trace the effects of the Reformation in the leading Euro- 
pean countries, we will here say only a word regarding the general 
results of the movement. 

The first and perhaps most important result of the Reformation 
was the severance of the nations of Northern Europe from the 
ecclesiastical empire of Rome. This was a sort of reversal of the 
work of the early mediaeval centuries ; for the most significant 
result of the conversion to Christianity of the Northern peoples was 
the bringing of them, as was remarked in an early chapter, within 
this spiritual empire. This was then a great advantage to them. 
The parental government which Rome established over these self- 
willed and barbarous peoples was a wholesome and needed re- 
straint. But now what was once, in the words of Macaulay, " a 
legitimate and salutary guardianship, had become an unjust and 
noxious tyranny." These nations, grown to mature and thought- 
ful manhood, must now be left free to work out each its own' 
destiny, without foreign control or interference. What this separa- 
tion from Rome meant is well stated by Seebohm : " It was the 
claiming by the civil power in each nation of those rights which 
the Pope had hitherto claimed within it as head of the great eccle- 
siastical empire. The clergy and monks had hitherto been re- 
garded more or less as foreigners — i.e., as subjects of the Pope's 
ecclesiastical empire. Where there was a revolt from Rome the 
allegiance of these persons to the Pope was annulled, and the 
civil power claimed as full a sovereignty over them as it had over 
its lay subjects. Matters relating to marriage and wills still for the 
most part remained under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, but then, as 
the ecclesiastical courts themselves became national courts and 



37S THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

ceased to be Roman or Papal, all these matters came under the 
control of the civil power. Even in matters of religious doctrine 
and practice and public worship, the civil power often claimed the 
final authority hitherto claimed by the Pope." l 

It is noteworthy that, very broadly viewed, the revolt from Rome 
was made only by Teutonic nations ; that is, by Northern Germany, 
by portions of Switzerland and of the Netherlands, by Denmark, 
Norway, Sweden, England, and Scotland : while the Romance na- 
tions — that is, Italy, France, and Spain, together with Celtic Ire- 
land — adhered to the old Church. The doctrines of the reformers 
did, indeed, spread into the Latin or Romance nations, but in all of 
them they were more or less thoroughly uprooted by persecution. 
Thus the entire movement may be viewed as another expression 
and illustration of that independent, freedom-loving spirit that we 
have seen to be the distinguishing characteristic of the Teutonic 
race. 

The second most important result of the Reformation was the 
bringing in by it of the principle of religious toleration. It is true 
that, notwithstanding some of the reformers denounced religious 
persecution, declaring that it was cruel, wrong, and useless to 
burn or torture a man on account of his belief, the Protestants 
as a rule did not recognize the right of a man to form his own 
creed, and when they had the power became as violent persecutors 
as the Catholics themselves. They believed with the Catholics that 
heresy should be punished, only they defined it differently. As 
Seebohm puts it, " Heretics were still to be burned, but speaking 
against the Pope was declared no longer to be heresy." But the 
path upon which the reformers had entered led straight to relig- 
ious toleration, notwithstanding the Protestants did not see clearly 
whither it tended. In deciding for themselves that the Bible and 
not the Church is the ultimate authority in matters of faith, the 
reformers, as has been remarked, made a bold exercise of the right 
of private judgment, and established a principle that was bound, 
through a logical necessity, ultimately to result in the broadest 

1 The Era of the Protestant Revolution, p. 162. 



GENERAL RESULTS OF THE REFORMATION. 379 

religious liberty. But the times were not yet ripe for the triumph 
of so beneficent a principle. The mental horizon of men was 
still too narrow, their conception of the relation of State and Church 
too faulty, and their ideas as to the eternal danger and criminality 
of error in religious belief, even though honest, too immature and 
perverse. 

A third result of the Reformation was its influence upon liberal 
government. The movement was favorable to political liberty. 
The Protestant Church is democratic in its constitution and ten- 
dencies ; and ecclesiastical democracy has fostered political democ- 
racy. " It can be said with truth," affirms Fisher, " that the Re- 
formation made the free Netherlands ; the Reformation made free 
England, or was an essential agent in this work ; the Reformation 
made the free Republic of America." Speaking generally, we may 
say that Protestantism placed itself on the side of Liberty, while 
Roman Catholicism became the ally of Despotism. Consequently 
the nations that accepted Protestantism advanced rapidly, and for 
the most part without long or disastrous revolutions, into political 
freedom ; while those that remained under the ecclesiastical yoke 
of Rome secured for themselves civil and constitutional liberty only 
after long delay, or through the throes of terrible social upheavals 
and revolutions, as witness Italy, Spain, and France. 

Further, the Reformation was favorable to intellectual progress, 
and had a wholesome and inspiring effect upon literature anil pop- 
ular education. Having been itself fostered by the intellectual 
revival, it in turn gave a fresh impulse to the mental progress of 
the world. The reformers, in order to reach the masses, threw 
aside the Latin of the Schoolmen, and used the language of the 
people. This gave an immense impulse to the national languages 
of Northern Europe, especially to English and German. The in- 
fluence of Tyndale's New 'Testament upon the English language 
can hardly be overestimated. Luther's Bible almost created the 
German out of a chaos of dialects. The intellectual quickening of 
Holland, England, and Scotland under the influence of Protestant- 
ism was simply surprising. " The Reformation in Germany trans- 



380 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

ferred literary activity from the South to the North. Since that 
time the literary achievements on the Catholic side have been, in 
comparison with those of the Protestants, insignificant." l And 
regarding Europe in general, we find that Catholic countries have 
fettered knowledge by a long index of prohibited books, while 
Protestant nations have, as a rule, left the press comparatively free. 

Again, the Reformation had a purifying effect upon morals. It 
abolished, in the countries which embraced the new creed, the 
monasteries, which, once the nurseries of Christian virtues, had now 
very generally become the hot-beds of Epicurean vices. It did 
away with the celibacy of the clergy, another source doubtless of 
great immorality. And then the holy fervor enkindled in many 
souls, also tended to exalt and purify the life, as witness the Puri- 
tans of England, the Huguenots of France, and the Covenanters of 
Scotland. 

The Reformation, furthermore, has been favorable to material 
progress, which may be illustrated by a comparison of Protestant 
with Roman Catholic countries. 2 The former have been character- 
ized by enterprise and invention, by industrial and material prog- 
ress ; while the countries that have remained most completely 
under the yoke of the ecclesiastical dominion of Rome, as Spain 
and Italy, have been marked by a strange torpidity of national life, 
and an almost perfect paralysis of individual enterprise. 

But the effects of the Protestant Revolution are by no means to 
be sought for in Protestant countries alone. The movement pro- 
duced what is called the Catholic Counter-Reformation ; that is, 
a reformation within the Roman Church herself. She underwent 
a thorough purification in head and members, — instituted those 
moral reforms the long delay of which had resulted in the schism 
of the Church. " Had Protestantism," declares Draper in his In- 
tellectual Development of Europe^ "produced no other result than 
this, it would have been an unspeakable blessing to the world." 

1 Fisher's History of the Reformation, p. 534. 

8 On this point, as well as the preceding ones, read Macaulay's famous 
paragraph in his History of England, Vol. I. Chap. I. 



GENERA I. RESULTS OF THE REFORMATION. 381 

But unfortunately the Counter- Reformation was accompanied by 

a reaction towards despotism. The Roman Church purified itself, 
and then demanded of all a more implicit obedience than hitherto. 
Heresy was more sternly dealt with, and the civil power in those 
countries that still remained, as a whole, loyal to Rome, allying 
itself with the Church, executed more promptly and willingly than 
ever before the sentences of the ecclesiastical tribunals. " Hence- 
forth, both in France and in Spain, the nation was more than ever 
enthralled under the double despotism of Crown and Church. 
The Inquisition may be taken as the symbol of the one kind of 
despotism, and the French Bastile of the other." l 

1 Seebohm's The Era of the Protestant Revolution, p. 218. 



382 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE ASCENDENCY OF SPAIN. 

I. Reign of the Emperor Charles V. (15 19-1556). 

Charles's Dominions. — In the year 1500 there was born in the 
city of Ghent, in the Netherlands, a prince who was destined to 
play a great part in the history of the sixteenth century. This 
was Charles, — son of Philip the Handsome, Archduke of Austria, 
and Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, — des- 
tined to be known to fame as Emperor Charles V. 

Charles was " the converging point and heir of four great royal 
lines, which had become united by a series of happy matrimonial 
alliances." : These were the houses of Austria, Burgundy, Castile, 
and Aragon. Castile and Aragon were joined by the marriage of 
Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile ; Austria and Bur- 
gundy, by the marriage of Maximilian of Austria to Mary, the 
daughter and heir of Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy : 
then these double lines were brought together by the marriage of 
Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, to Philip, son of 
Maximilian and Mary. 

Before Charles had completed his nineteenth year, there were 
heaped upon his head, through the removal of his ancestors by 
death, the crowns of the four dynasties. In 1506, by the death of 
his father, Charles fell heir to the Netherlands ; in 15 16, the death 
of his grandfather Ferdinand transferred to him the crowns of 
Spain and Naples, and the sovereignty of vast, indefinite regions 

lr rhe practice of the House of Austria to make conquests through politic 
marriages, is celebrated by Matthias Coivinus in the following lines, quoted by 
Stirling in his Cloister Life of Charles V., p. 3 : — 

Bella gerant alii ; tu felix Austria nube! 

Nam quae Mars aliis dat tibi regna Venus. 



CHARLES and THE REFORMATION. 383 

iii the New World ; and in 15 19, by the death of his grandfather 
Maximilian, he inherited the duchy of Austria and all its depen- 
dencies. Thus, in the words of Prescott, " did a long train of cir- 
cumstances open the way for this prince to the inheritance of more 
extensive dominions than any European monarch since Charle- 
magne had possessed." 

But vast as were these hereditary possessions of the young prince, 
there was straightway added to these (in 15 19), by the vote of 
the Electors of Germany, the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Em- 
pire. After this election he was known as Emperor Charles V., 
whereas hitherto he had borne the title of Don. Carlos I. of 
Spain. 

The suzerainty of the great confederation of free cities, princi- 
palities, dukedoms, and marquisates which at this time made up 
the so-called " Empire," was scarcely more than a title of honor, a 
sort of vexatious over-lordship ; yet the conferring of it upon the 
Spanish king involved him, as we shall see, in almost interminable 
wars with the French king, Francis I., who was his disappointed 
rival in the race for the Imperial crown. It also drew him into 
many quarrels with his refractory German vassals, and involved 
him deeply in the great religious dispute which had already begun 
in Germany. 

Charles and the Reformation. — It is, in fact, Charles's relations 
to the Lutheran movement which constitute the significant feature 
of his life and work. Here his policies and acts concerned univer- 
sal history. It would hardly be asserting too much to say that 
Charles, at the moment he ascended the Imperial throne, held in 
his hands the fortunes of the Reformation, so far as regards the 
countries of Southern Europe. Whether these were to be saved 
to Rome or not, seemed at this time to depend largely upon the 
attitude which Charles should assume towards the reform move- 
ment. 

Fortunately for the Roman Catholic Church, unfortunately for 
Protestantism, and, we must yet add, unfortunately for civilization, 
the young Emperor placed himself at the head of the Catholic 



384 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

party, and not only during his own reign employed the strength 
and resources of his empire in uprooting the heresy of the reform- 
ers, but also transmitted to his successors upon the Spanish throne 
his own intolerant and persecuting policy. 

Charles, in declaring for the old faith and against the new, was 
swayed both by conviction and by considerations of policy. Al- 
though suspicious and jealous of the Papacy, he was strongly 
attached to the Roman Catholic Church and creed, and sincerely 
believed that the first duty of a prince was to uproot heresy in his 
dominions. Moreover, he was strongly imbued with the idea that 
the Church and the Empire were indissoluble, — that their fortunes, 
somehow, were bound up together, and that, resting as they did 
upon the same maxims and principles, to disturb the basis of the 
ecclesiastical power was to sap likewise the foundations of the 
Imperial authority. 

His Two Chief Enemies. — Had Charles been free from the out- 
set to devote all his energies to the work of suppressing the 
Lutheran heresy, it is difficult to see what could have saved the 
reform doctrines within his dominions from total extirpation. But 
fortunately for the cause of the reformers, Charles's attention, 
during all the first part of his reign, was drawn away from the 
serious consideration of Church questions, by the attacks upon his 
dominions of two of the most powerful monarchs of the times, — 
Francis I. (15 15-1547) of France, and Solyman the Magnificent 
(1520-1566), Sultan of Turkey. Whenever Charles was inclined 
to proceed to severe measures against the Protestant princes of 
Germany, the threatening movements of one or both of these 
enemies, at times acting in concert and alliance, forced him to 
postpone his proposed crusade against heretics for a campaign 
against foreign foes. 

Of course, Francis and Solyman were not the Emperor's only 
enemies. Henry VIII. of England and the Pope, though some- 
times his allies, were quite as apt to be found acting against him. 
Troubles, too, he had with his subjects in Spain and the Nether- 
lands. Nevertheless, by keeping in mind the main points of the 



FIRST WAR BETWEEN CHARLES AND FRANCIS. 385 

general situation of affairs as indicated above, we shall experience 
no confusion while following the leading events of his reign, which 
we will now proceed to give in very brief outline. 

First War between Charles and Francis (1521-1526). — 
Francis I., as we have said, was the rival of Charles in the contest for 
the Imperial dignity. When the Electors conferred the title upon 
the Spanish monarch, Francis was sorely disappointed, and during 
all the remainder of his reign kept up a jealous and almost inces- 
sant warfare with Charles, whose enormous possessions now nearly 
surrounded the French kingdom. 

But, though jealousy was the real cause of the wars waged be- 
tween Charles and Francis, the occasion of them was Charles's 
claims to Milan, as part of his Imperial possessions, and to the 
duchy of Burgundy as a part of his hereditary possessions ; and 
the counterclaims of Francis to Spanish Navarre and Naples. 

What is known as the First War between Francis and the 
Emperor broke out in 15 2 1. 1 This was the very year of the Diet 
of Worms, the body that tried Luther for heresy. It was a critical 
moment for Protestantism. Charles was ready to use force to 
suppress the reformers, and had he not been compelled by the hos- 
tile movements of his rival Francis to defer until a more convenient 
season the execution of his designs against them, the Reformation 
in Germany might have been strangled in its cradle. 

The war was full of misfortunes for Francis. His army was 
driven out of Northern Italy by the Imperial forces ; his most 
skillful and trusted commander, the Constable of Bourbon, turned 
traitor and went over to Charles ; and another of his most valiant 
nobles, the celebrated Chevalier Bayard, the knight sans peur, sans 
reproche, "without fear and without reproach," was killed; while, 

1 Before beginning the war, Francis cast about for an ally. The young 
king of England, Henry VIII., seemed the most desirable friend. He accord- 
ingly invited Henry to a conference in France, at which was to be considered 
the matter of an alliance against the Emperor. The two kings, each attended 
by a magnificent train of courtiers, met near Calais (1520). The meeting is 
known in history as "The Field of the Cloth of Gold." Nothing came of the 
interview, and Charles finally succeeded in winning Henry over to his side. 



386 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

to crown all, Francis, who had led a large army into Italy to re- 
trieve his misfortunes, was, after suffering a crushing defeat at 
Pavia, wounded and taken prisoner (1525). In his letter to his 
mother informing her of the disaster, he laconically wrote, " All is 
lost save honor." 

Francis languished in prison at Madrid nearly a year, when, 
after signing a treaty known as the Peace of Madrid (1526), in 
which he agreed, among various other concessions, to give up all 
claims to Milan and Naples, and to cede to Charles the duchy of 
Burgundy, he was released. His exultant and repeated exclama- 
tion as he touched French soil was, " Once more I am a king." 

Second War between Charles and Francis (1527-1529). — 
That Francis was again a king, Charles soon had unmistakable 
evidence. When the French king signed the Treaty of Madrid, 
he had no idea of abiding by it. No sooner was he at liberty 
than he secured from the Pope — who claimed and freely exer- 
cised the power of annulling oaths — an absolution from the prom- 
ises he had made to Charles, and then set to work to form a league 
against him. He succeeded in uniting in the confederacy the 
Pope, Henry VIII. of England, and several of the States of Italy. 
Henry turned against his former friend because of a personal 
slight, while the Pope and the Italian cities were moved by jealousy 
of the growing Imperial power in Italy. 

The Italian peninsula was, as usual, the battle-ground of the 
combatants. The most memorable incident of the war was the 
sack of Rome by the Imperial forces. The traitor Bourbon, who 
led the assaulting column, was killed while in the act of scaling 
the walls. Being thus left without the restraint of their leader, the 
soldiers rioted in slaughter and pillage. Rome had not witnessed 
such scenes since the terrible days of the Goth and Vandal. 

Finally, after the French and their allies had suffered many 
defeats, the war was ended by the treaty known as the " Ladies' 
Peace of Cambray," from the circumstance that its terms were 
arranged by an aunt of Charles and the mother of Francis (1529). 

The Diet of Augsburg (1530). — The respite from his wars 



CHARLES'S EXPEDITION AGAINST TUNIS. 387 

with Francis which the Ladies' Peace gave Charles, was employed 
by him in coronation ceremonies at Bologna, in composing Italian 
affairs, and in presiding at the celebrated Diet of Augsburg, called 
to consider the state of the Church in Germany. It was at this 
time that the Protestants, alarmed by the attitude assumed to- 
wards them by the Emperor, formed the celebrated League of 
Schmalkald. 

The Turks. — Charles was actually on the point of crushing the 
reformers by force, when a deliverer came in the person of the 
Turkish Sultan, Solyman the Magnificent, who, driven back from 
Vienna, which capital he had subjected to a severe siege (1529), 
was now marching upon Germany with an enormous army. This 
threatening danger compelled Charles to come to some accommo- 
dation with the Protestants, in order that he might employ the 
undivided strength of Germany in repelling the invaders. Accord- 
ingly, by what was known as the Religious Peace of Nuremberg, the 
Protestants were given freedom of worship until the meeting of a 
new council. Protestants and Catholics now rallied to the Impe- 
rial standard, and at the head of a splendid army Charles marched 
against the Turks. Solyman prudently retreated and sheltered 
himself behind the desolated provinces of Hungary (1532). 

Charles's Expedition against Tunis (1535). — Germany being 
thus relieved of immediate danger of invasion by the Turks, 
Charles now turned his attention to the same foe in the Mediter- 
ranean. Alarming as had been the progress of the Turks in East- 
ern Europe, still more alarming was the growth of their power in 
the South. The Mediterranean with its coasts had fallen almost 
completely under their control. In the year 1522 a Turkish fleet 
and army of 200,000 men assaulted the island of Rhodes, where, 
it will be recalled, the Knights of St. John had established them- 
selves after their expulsion from Palestine, and the brave knights, 
after a most heroic defense of the island, were forced to surrender 
that bulwark of Christianity in the Mediterranean (1522). Charles, 
whose war with Francis had prevented his giving to the Hospi- 
talers such support as they had a right to expect from the most 



388 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

powerful sovereign of Christendom, made what amends it re- 
mained in his power to make after the calamity had fallen, by 
giving the survivors of the order the island of Malta, where the 
knights reorganized their society (1530). 

The worst feature of this advance of the Sultan's authority in 
the Mediterranean was the growth, under his protection, of the 
power of the Algerine pirates. These corsairs terrorized the Medi- 
terranean and all its shores. " From Cadiz to Patros there was 
barely a spot which had not suffered, and none which felt itself safe, 
from the wild marauders from the shores of Numidia. . . . Sailing 
in great fleets, they laid waste entire districts, and carried off entire 
populations. . . . Barbarossa [an Algerine pirate, to whom the 
Sultan had given the command of the Turkish fleet] sold at one 
time, at his beautiful home on the Bosphorus, ... no less than 
16,000 Christian captives in slavery. It was not only the seaman, 
the merchant, or the traveler, who was exposed to this calamitous 
fate. The peasant of Aragon or Provence, who returned at sun- 
set from pruning his vines or his olives far from 'the sound of the 
waves, might on the morrow be ploughing the main, chained to a 
Barbary oar. Sometimes a whole brotherhood of friars, from tell- 
ing their beads at ease at Valencia found themselves hoeing in the 
rice-fields of Tripoli ; sometimes the vestals of a Sicilian nunnery 
were parceled out amongst the harems of Fez." l 

One of the chief strongholds of these pirates on the African 
coast was Tunis, which was held by the famous Barbarossa. With 
a large army and fleet, Charles made an assault upon this place, 
defeated the corsair, and set free 20,000 Christian captives. For 
this brilliant and knightly achievement, the Emperor received great 
applause throughout Europe. 

Third War between Charles and Francis (153 6- 1538). — 
Taking advantage of the Emperor's preoccupation with the Nu- 
midian corsairs, Francis renewed his claims to Milan, and precipi- 
tated the third war with his rival. In this war Francis shocked all 
Christendom by forming an alliance with the Turkish Sultan, who 

1 Stirling, The Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth, p. 124. 






FOURTH WAR BETWEEN CHARLES AND FRANCIS. 3S9 

ravaged with his fleets the Italian coasts, and sold his plunder and 
captives in the port of Marseilles. Thus was a Christian city 
shamefully opened to the Moslems as a refuge and slave-market. 

The war was finally ended by the Truce of Nice, which was to 
last ten years. 

Charles's Expeditions against Ghent and Algiers. — The short 
breathing-time between his third and fourth war with Francis, the 
Emperor employed in chastising the rebellious city of Ghent 
(1539- 15 40), of which matter we shall find a more convenient 
place to say a word in a succeeding chapter in connection with the 
affairs of the Netherlands. 

The year after he had punished Ghent, Charles led an expedi- 
tion against the pirates of Algiers, which place, since the reduction 
of Tunis, had been made the stronghold of the Moslem corsairs. 
The issue of the enterprise was very different from that of his pre- 
vious undertaking against Tunis. The Imperial fleet had barely 
touched the African shore and landed the troops of the expedition, 
before a large part of the ships were destroyed by a tempest. 
Only after heavy losses, and great suffering among the survivors, 
did the Emperor succeed in drawing off his army and effecting a 
retreat from the coast. 

Fourth War between Charles and Francis (1542-15 44). — 
The unfortunate issue of Charles's expedition against Algiers en- 
couraged Francis again to try the fortunes of war with the Empe- 
ror, notwithstanding only four years of the Ten Years' Truce had 
passed. 

In this war Francis formed a fresh alliance with the Sultan, and 
thus stirred anew the indignation of Christendom. Charles was 
not slow to turn this feeling to his own advantage, and easily 
induced Henry VIII. to join him in an attack upon France. The 
country was invaded on three sides at once ; but the energy of the 
French king, who succeeded in crushing one of the invading 
armies, and the failure of the English to carry out the part assigned 
to them, led Charles, when almost within sight of Paris, to con- 
:lude with Francis the Peace of Crespy (1544). By the terms of 



390 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

this treaty, Francis renounced his claims to Naples and the suzer- 
ainty of Flanders and Artois, while Charles, on his part, gave up 
all claims to Burgundy. 

Thus ended the fourth and last war between the rivals. It left 
their respective possessions substantially the same as at the begin- 
ning of the strife, in 15 21. 

Disastrous Effects of the Wars. — The direct and indirect 
results of these royal contentions had been extremely calamitous. 
For a quarter of a century they had kept nearly all Europe in a 
perfect turmoil. Counting from the time when Charles VIII. began 
the Italian wars by his invasion of Italy, France had lost 2,000,000 
men, and had inflicted, probably, an equal loss upon her enemies. 

But the indirect consequences of the wars were even more 
lamentable. By preventing alliances of the Christian states, these 
quarrels had really been the occasion of the severe losses which 
Christendom during this period suffered at the hands of the 
Turks. Hungary had been ravaged with fire and sword ; Rhodes 
had been captured ; and all the Mediterranean shores pillaged, and 
thousands of Christian captives chained to the oars of Turkish 
galleys. 

Persecution of the French Protestants by Francis. — The ces- 
sation of the wars between Francis and Charles left each free to 
give his attention to his heretic subjects. And both had work 
enough on hand ; for, while " The Most Christian King " and " His 
Most Catholic Brother "had been fighting each other, the doctrines 
of the reformers had been spreading rapidly in all directions and 
among all classes. 

Francis had already displayed his zeal for the old faith by cruel 
persecutions of his Protestant subjects ; but political considerations 
(chiefly the fear of alienating the Protestant German princes) had 
prevented his carrying his measures of repression to such extremes 
as he would otherwise have done. One motive that now prompted 
Francis to renewed activity in the work of torturing and burning 
heretics seems to have been his desire to make atonement for his 
wicked alliances with the infidel Turk. This thing had subjected 



CHARLES'S WARS WITH THE PROTESTANT PRINCES. 391 

him to the severest criticism. He would now set himself right in 
the eyes of Europe by an exhibition of his devotion to the ancient 
Church. 

The severest blow fell upon the Vaudois, or Waldenses, 1 the 
simple, inoffensive inhabitants of a number of hamlets in Piedmont 
and Provence. The order having been given for their extermina- 
tion, in 1545 an army entered the country of the heretics, and then 
were repeated all the atrocities of the Albigensian persecution. 
Thousands were put to death by the sword, thousands more were 
burned at the stake, and the land was reduced to a wilderness. 
Only a miserable remnant, who found an asylum among the moun- 
tains, were left to hand down their faith to later times. 

Charles's Wars with the Protestant German Princes. — 
Charles, on his part, turned his attention to the reformers in Ger- 
many. Inspired by the religious motives and convictions of which 
we have already spoken, and apprehensive, further, of the effect 
upon his authority in Germany of the growth there of such an em- 
pire within an empire as the League of Schmalkald was becoming, 
he resolved to crush the Protestant princes. 

Accordingly, in the very year that Luther died (1546), the 
Emperor, aided by the German Catholics, attacked the Protestant 
League. The desertion to the Imperial side of one of the most 
powerful of the Protestant princes, Maurice of Saxony, so paralyzed 
the movements of the League that its forces were quickly dispersed, 
the organization dissolved, and its leaders punished. The Empe- 
ror treated the conquered confederates with extreme harshness, 
imposing enormous fines upon the cities, and carrying about with 
him, as a sort of spectacle to illustrate the Imperial power, two of 
the prominent Protestant chiefs, John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, 
and Philip, Landgrave of Hesse. 

The harshness and intolerance that marked the conduct of 
Charles soon led to an uprising of the Protestant princes, in which 
they were joined by the former deserter, Maurice. Henry II. of 

1 So called from the founder of the sect, Peter Waldo, or Pierre de Vaux, 
who lived about the beginning of the thirteenth century. 



392 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

France, — son of Francis I., who died in 1547, — taking up the old 
quarrel of his father with Charles, gave aid to the Protestant 
princes. The war proved the most disastrous and humiliating to 
the Emperor of any in which he had engaged. Swift, successive 
defeats of his armies soon forced him to give up his undertaking 
to make all his German subjects think alike in matters of religion. 

The Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555). — In the celebrated 
Diet of Augsburg, convened in 1555 to compose the distracted 
affairs of the German states, it was arranged and agreed that every 
prince should be allowed to choose between the Catholic religion 
and the Augsburg Confession, 1 and should have the right to make 
his religion the worship of his people. This, it will be noted, was 
simply toleration as concerns princes or governments. The people 
individually had no freedom of choice ; every subject must follow 
his prince., and think and believe as he thought and believed. Of 
course, this was no real toleration. 

Even to the article of toleration as stated above, the Diet made 
one important exception. The Catholics insisted that ecclesiastical 
princes, i.e., bishops and abbots, on becoming Protestants, should 
lose their offices and revenues ; and this famous provision, under 
the name of the Ecclesiastical Reservation, was finally made a part 
of the treaty. This was a most fortunate article for the Catholics. 
It is said that but for it all Germany would have turned Protestant. 

Abdication and Death of Charles. — While the Diet of Augs- 
burg was arranging the Religious Peace, the Emperor Charles was 
enacting the part of a second Diocletian. There had long been 
forming in his mind the purpose of spending his last days in mo- 
nastic seclusion. The disappointing issue of his contest with the 
Protestant princes of Germany, the weight of advancing years, to- 

1 The "Augsburg Confession" was the formula of belief of the adherents of 
Luther. It was drawn up by the scholar Melanchthon, and laid before the Im- 
perial Diet assembled at Augsburg by Charles V. in 1530. It formed the basis 
of the Lutheran Church. The Peace of Augsburg, it is to be specially noted, 
made no provision for the Calvinists — that is, the confessors of the Genevan 
creed. 



ABDICATION AND DEATH OF CHARLES. 393 

gether with menacing troubles which began " to thicken like dark 
clouds about the evening of his reign," now led the Emperor to 
carry this resolution into effect. Accordingly he abdicated in 
favor of his son Philip the crown of the Netherlands J (1555), and 
that of Spain and its colonies (1556), and then retired to the 
monastery of San Yuste, situated in a secluded region in the west- 
ern part of Spain (1556). 

The departure of the self-deposed monarch from Ghent to the 
place of his exile is thus contrasted, by the pen of a graceful his- 
torian, with his embarkation from the Netherlands more than a 
third of a century before, to receive the crown of Spain and the 
Indies, which had just descended to him by the death of his 
grandfather Ferdinand : "He was then in the morning of life ; 
just entering on a career as splendid as ever opened to young 
ambition. How different must have been the reflections which 
now crowded on his mind, as, with wasted health, and spirits 
sorely depressed, he now embarked on the same voyage ! He 
had run the race of glory, had won the prize, and found that all 
was vanity. He was now returning to the goal whence he had 
started, anxious only to reach some quiet spot where he might lay 
down his weary limbs and be at rest." 2 

In his retreat at Yuste, Charles passed the remaining short term 
of his life in participating with the monks in the exercises of reli- 
gion, and in watching the current of events without ; for Charles 
never lost interest in the affairs of the empire over which he had 
ruled, and Philip constantly had the benefit of his father's wisdom 
and experience. 

Charles died in the year 1558, just a few weeks after having 
taken part in his own funeral ceremonies. Thus strangely closed 

1 Philip had received the crown of Naples the preceding year (1554), in 
order that his titular dignity might be the same as that of Queen Mary of 
England, to whom he was that year united in marriage. The Imperial crown 
went to Charles's brother, Ferdinand, who in 1536 had been elected King of 
the Romans, and crowned at Aachen. 

- Prescott's Robertson's Charles the Fifth, Vol. III. p. 305 (Phila. ed., 
1881). 



394 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

the life of the Emperor Charles V., " the greatest monarch of the 
sixteenth century." 

Charles's Last Instructions to Philip respecting the Protestants. 

— There is a tradition which tells how Charles, after vainly en- 
deavoring to make some clocks that he had about him at Yuste 
run together, made the following reflection : " How foolish I have 
been to think I could make all men believe alike about religion, 
when here I cannot make even two clocks keep the same time." 

This story is probably mythical. Charles seems never to have 
doubted either the practicability or the policy of securing uniformity 
of belief by force. While in retirement at Yuste, he expressed the 
deepest regret that he did not burn Luther at Worms. He was 
constantly urging Philip to use greater severity in dealing with his 
heretic subjects, and could scarcely restrain himself from leaving 
his retreat, in order to engage personally in the work of extirpating 
the pestilent doctrines, which he heard were spreading in Spain. 
In the codicil to his will, executed just before his death, " he en- 
joined upon his son to follow up and bring to justice any heretic 
in his dominions, and this without exception and without favor 
or mercy to any one. He conjured Philip to cherish the Holy 
Inquisition as the best means for accomplishing this good work. 
' So,' he concludes, ' shall you have my blessing, and the Lord 
shall prosper all your undertakings.' " l 

"No one of his line," comments the historian (Prescott) whom 
we have just quoted, " did so much to fasten the yoke of super- 
stition on the necks of the Spaniards. He may be truly said to 
have stamped his character not only on his own generation, but 
on that which followed it. His example and his teachings directed 
the policy of the pitiless Philip the Second, and through him, of 
the imbecile Philip the Third." 

And it was chiefly the influence of Charles's course and coun- 
sel that Stirling had in mind when he wrote as follows : " The year 
1558 is memorable in the history of Spain. In that year was de- 
cided the question whether she was to join the intellectual move- 

1 Prescott's Roberston's Charles the Fifth, Vol. III. p. 435 (Phila. ed., 1881). 



PHILIP'S DOMAINS AND RE VENUES. 395 

ment of the North or lag behind in the old path of mediaeval faith ; 
whether she was to be guided by the printing-press, or to hold fast 
by her manuscript missals." l 

II. Spain under Philip II. (1556-1598). 

Philip's Domains and Revenues. — With the abdication of 
Charles V. the Imperial crown passed out of the Spanish line of 
the House of Hapsburg. Yet the dominions of Philip were scarcely 
less extensive than those over which his father had ruled. All the 
hereditary possessions of the Spanish crown were of course his. 
Then just before the abdication of his father gave him these 
domains, he had become king-consort of England by marriage 
with Mary Tudor. And about the middle of his reign he con- 
quered Portugal and added to his empire that kingdom and its 
rich dependencies in Africa and the East Indies, — an acquisition 
which more than made good to the Spanish crown the loss of the 
Imperial dignity. After this accession of territory, Philip's sov- 
ereignty was acknowledged by more than 100,000,000 persons — 
probably as large a number as was embraced within the limits of the 
Roman Empire at the time of its greatest extension. 

Philip's revenues, too, were as ample as his domains. The mines 
of Mexico and Peru poured into the royal coffers a steady stream 
of the precious metals ; the looms of Flanders created untold 
wealth for their Spanish master ; while the nourishing state of 
Spanish trade, manufactures, and commerce, enabled Philip to levy 
upon the provinces and cities of the peninsula frequent and heavy 
taxes. 

But notwithstanding that Philip's dominions were so extensive, 
his resources so enormous, and many of the outward circumstances 
of his reign so striking and brilliant, there were throughout the 
period causes at work which were rapidly undermining the great- 
ness of Spain and preparing her fall. By wasteful wars and extrav- 
agant buildings Philip managed to dissipate the royal treasures ; and 

1 Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth, p. 189. 



396 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

by his bigoted and tyrannical course in respect of his Moorish, 
Jewish, and Protestant subjects, he ruined the industries of the 
most flourishing of the provinces of Spain, and drove the Nether- 
lands into a desperate revolt, which ended in the separation of the 
most valuable of those provinces from the Spanish crown. 

As the most important matters of Philip's reign — namely, his war 
against the revolted Netherlands, and his attempt upon England 
with his " Invincible Armada " — belong more properly to the 
respective histories of England and the Netherlands, and will be 
treated of in connection with the affairs of those countries, we shall 
give here only a very little space to the history of the period. 

Philip's War with France. — Philip took up his father's quarrel 
with France. He was aided by the English, who were persuaded 
to this step by their queen, Mary Tudor, now the wife, it will be 
recalled, of Philip. 

Fortune favored Philip. He defeated the French in a great 
battle before St. Quentin l (1557), an important town in the north 
of France, and then again at Gravelines (1558). The French 
king was forced to agree to the terms of a treaty (Peace of Cateau- 
Cambresis, 1559) so advantageous to Philip as to give the latter 
great distinction in the eyes of all Europe. 

Philip's Crusade against the Moors. — Philip was by nature 
bigoted, intolerant, and despotic. It was easy for him to obey the 

1 The monument built by Philip to commemorate the victory of St. Quentin 
is strikingly illustrative of his character. Before the battle, he vowed to erect 
to St. Lawrence the most splendid monastery the world had ever seen, if he 
would but give success to his arms. Philip kept his vow faithfully. A few 
years after the battle, he laid, near the city of Madrid, the foundation of the 
famous Escurial, a building which cost $15,000,000, and required a quarter of 
a century for its erection. The edifice was built in the form of a gridiron, from 
the circumstance that St. Lawrence suffered martyrdom by being broiled on 
such an instrument. Seventeen rows of stone buildings constitute the bars of 
the gridiron, and a projecting wing forms its handle, while the feet of the in- 
strument (it is supposed to be inverted) are represented by the four corner 
towers. It is the Westminster of Spain : it holds the ashes of all the Spanish 
sovereigns from Charles V. onward. 



DEFEAT OF THE TURKISH FLEET AT LEPANTO. 597 

injunctions of his father regarding the treatment of heretics. Of 
his persecutions in the Netherlands we shall have something to say 
in another place. While laboring to uproot heresy in those parts 
of his dominions, he was also engaged in a crusade against the 
Moors, or Moriscoes, of the peninsula. It will be recalled that 
after the conquest of Granada these people were still allowed the 
free exercise of their religion. Philip conceived it to be his duty 
to impose upon them conditions that should thoroughly obliterate 
all traces of their ancient faith and manners. So he issued a decree 
that the Moors should no longer use their native tongue ; and that 
they should give their children Christian names, and send them to 
Christian schools. A determined revolt followed. Philip repressed 
the uprising with terrible severity (15 71). The fairest provinces 
of Spain were almost depopulated, and large districts relapsed into 
primeval wildness. 

Defeat of the Turkish Fleet at Lepanto ( 1 5 7 1 ) . — Philip ren- 
dered at least one service to civilization. This was in helping to 
stay the progress of the Turks in the Mediterranean. They had 
captured the important island of Cyprus, and had assaulted the 
Hospitalers at Malta, which island had been saved from falling into 
the hands of the infidels only by the splendid conduct of the 
knights. All Christendom was becoming alarmed. Pope Pius V. 
called upon the princes of Europe to rally to the defense of the 
Church. A martial enthusiasm, somewhat like that which stirred 
Europe at the time of the Crusades, was kindled everywhere, espe- 
cially in the countries of the South that lay exposed to the ravages 
of the Moslem fleets. An alliance was formed, embracing the 
Pope, the Venetians, and Philip II. An immense fleet was 
equipped, and put under the command of Don John of Austria, 
Philip's half-brother, a young general whose consummate ability 
had been recently displayed in the crusade against the Moors. 

The Christian fleet met the Turkish squadron in the Gulf of Le- 
panto, on the western coast of Greece. The battle was unequalled 
by anything the Mediterranean had seen since the naval encounters 
of the Romans and Carthaginians in the First Punic War. More 



398 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

than 600 ships and 200,000 men mingled in the struggle. The 
Ottoman fleet was almost totally destroyed. Thousands of Chris- 
tian captives, who were found chained to the oars of the Turkish 
galleys, were liberated. All Christendom rejoiced as when Jerusalem 
was captured by the first crusaders. The Pope is said to have shed 
tears of joy, and embracing the messenger who brought him the 
news, exclaimed, — with reference, of course, to the name of the 
commander of the Christian fleet, — " There was a man sent 
from God, and his name was John ! " 

The battle of Lepanto holds an important place in history, be- 
cause it marks the turning-point of the long struggle between the 
Mohammedans and Christians, which had now been going on for 
nearly one thousand years. Though the Moslems had received 
many checks, there really was no time previous to this great victory 
when the Mohammedan power, represented first by the Arabs and 
afterwards by the Turks, did not hang like a threatening cloud 
along the southern or eastern border of Christendom. The victory 
of Lepanto disarmed the cloud of its terrors. The Ottoman Turks, 
though they afterwards made progress in some quarters, never 
recovered the prestige they lost in that disaster, and their authority 
and power thenceforward steadily declined. 

Conquest of Portugal. — When, in 1 5 80, the throne of Portugal 
became vacant by the death of Don Henry the Cardinal, Philip laid 
claim to the kingdom, and made good his pretensions by an army 
sent into the country, under the command of the famous Duke of 
Alva. 

The importance of this conquest consisted not so much in the 
extension of Spanish authority throughout the Peninsula, as in the 
bringing under Spanish control of the greater part of the colonial 
possessions of Portugal in South America, in Africa, and in the East 
Indies. 

The Death of Philip: Later Events. — In the year 1588 Philip 
made his memorable attempt with the so-called " Invincible Ar- 
mada" upon England, at this time the stronghold of Protestantism. 
As we shall see a little later, he failed utterly in the undertaking. 



DEA TH OF PHI UP. — LA TER E VENTS. 399 

Ten years after this he died in the palace of the Escurial. With 
his death closed that splendid era of Spanish history which began 
with the magnificent discovery of the New World by Columbus. 
From this time forward the nation steadily declined in power, repu- 
tation, and influence. This was due* very largely to the bigotry and 
tyranny of her rulers. 

Thus, under the bigot Philip III. (1598-1621), a severe loss, 
and one from which they never recovered, was inflicted upon the 
manufactures and various other industries of Spain, by the expul- 
sion of the Moors, or Moriscoes. More than half a million of the 
most intelligent, skillful, and industrious inhabitants of the Peninsula 
were driven into exile. The empty dwellings and neglected fields 
of once populous and garden-like provinces told how fatal a blow 
Spain had received from the hand of bigotry. 

And then, in 1609, the Protestant Netherlands, whose revolt 
against the tyranny of Philip II. has been mentioned, virtually 
achieved their independence. 1 In the secession of these provinces 
the Spanish crown lost, through misgovernment and religious perse- 
cution, her most valuable possessions, and she now sank rapidly 
to the position of a third or fourth rate power. 

1 The loss of the Netherlands was followed in 1639 by the loss of Portugal. 
During the latter part of the seventeenth century Spain was involved in dis- 
astrous wars with France, and suffered a decline of 8,000,000 in her population. 
After the revolt of her American colonies, in the early part of the present cen- 
tury, and her cession to the United States of Florida (in 18 19), Spain was al- 
most shorn — she still held Cuba and a few other patches of territory scattered 
about the world — of those rich and magnificent colonial possessions which had 
been her pride in the time of her ascendency. 



400 THIRD PERIOD.-— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 



CHAPTER III, 

THE TUDORS AND THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 
(1485-1603). 

I. Introductory. 

The Tudor Period. — The Tudor period 1 in English history 
covers the sixteenth century, and overlaps a little the preceding 
and the following century. It was an eventful and stirring time for 
the English people. It witnessed among them great progress in 
art, science, and trade, and a literary outburst such as the world 
had not seen since the best days of Athens. But the great event 
of the period was the Reformation. It was under the sovereigns 
of this house that England was severed from the spiritual empire of 
Rome, and Protestantism firmly established in the island. To tell 
how these great results were effected will be our chief aim in the 
present chapter. 

The English Reformation first a Revolt and then a Reform. — 
The Reformation in England was, more distinctly than elsewhere, 
a double movement. First, England was separated violently from 
the ecclesiastical empire of Rome. All Papal and priestly authority 
was cast off, but without any essential change being made in creed 
or mode of worship. This was accomplished under Henry VIII. 

Second, the English Church, thus rendered independent of 
Rome, gradually changed its creed and ritual. This was effected 

1 The Tudor sovereigns were Henry VII. (1485- 1509); Henry VIII. (1509- 
1547); Edward VI. (1547-1553); Mary (1553-1558); and Elizabeth (1558- 
1603). 



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING IN ENGLAND. 401 

chiefly under Edward VI. So the movement was first a Tevolt and 
then a reform. 

The Revival of Learning in England. — The soil in England 
was, in a considerable measure, prepared for the seed of the 
Reformation by the labors of the Humanists. Three men stand 
preeminent as lovers and promoters of the New Learning. Their 
names were Colet, Erasmus, and More. 

Colet was leader and master of the little band. His generous 
enthusiasm was kindled at Florence, in Italy. It was an impor- 
tant event in the history of the Reformation when Colet crossed the 
Alps to learn Greek at the feet of the Greek exiles ; for Colet on 
his return to England brought back with him not only an increased 
love for classical learning, but a fervent zeal for religious reform, 
inspired, it would seem, by the stirring eloquence of Savonarola. 
Green declares that "the awakening of a rational Christianity, 
whether in England or in the Teutonic world at large, begins with 
the Italian studies of Colet." This great influence of Colet upon 
the world was exerted, for the most part, indirectly — through 
Erasmus and More, his disciples and fellow-workers. Colet inspired 
them, and their works stirred the-world. 

Erasmus was probably superior in classical scholarship to any 
other scholar of his times. " He bought Greek books first, and 
clothes afterwards." His Greek Testament, published in 15 16, 
was one of the most powerful agents concerned in bringing about 
the Reformation. His famous satire entitled the "Praise of Folly " 
was directed especially against ecclesiastics, and did effective work. 
Indeed, the relation of Erasmus to the whole reform movement 
was most significant, and is well indicated by the charge made 
against him by the enemies of the Reformation, who declared that 
" Erasmus laid the egg, and Luther hatched it." 

Thomas More was drawn, or rather forced, into political life, and 
of him and his writings we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, 
in connection with the reign of Henry VIII. 

The Lollards. — Another special preparation for the entrance 
into England of the Reformation was the presence among the lower 



402 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

classes there of a considerable body of Lollards, the name, it will 
be recalled, given to the followers of Wycliffe. Persecution had 
driven the sect into obscurity, but had not been able to extirpate 
the heresy. In holding the Scriptures as the sole rule of faith, and 
in the maintenance of other doctrines denounced by the Roman 
Catholic Church, the Lollards occupied a position similar to that 
held by the German reformers, and consequently, when the teach- 
ings of Luther were disseminated in England, they received them 
at once. And even where Lollardry had not rendered the English 
peasantry susceptible to the contagion of the new heresy, they were 
predisposed to the infection through other causes. Thus, although 
farther removed from feudal serfdom than the farm laborers of other 
countries, they were still in a wretched condition, and were ready 
to listen eagerly to the reformers, whose Gospel message seemed 
to them to whisper something about freedom and equality. 

II. The Reign of Henry VII. (1485-1509). 

The Two Impostors. — Henry VII. and his queen united the long- 
disputed titles of the two Roses. 1 But the bitter feelings engendered 
by the contentions of the rival families still existed. Particularly 
was there much smothered discontent among the Yorkists, which 
manifested itself in two remarkable attempts to place impostors 
upon the throne. 

The first attempt was made in 1487. A boy by the name of 
Lambert Simnel, son of a baker, was persuaded to personate the 
young Earl of Warwick, 2 who was then a prisoner in the Tower of 
London. He appeared in Ireland, where his cause was enthusi- 
astically espoused. Being proclaimed king by the Irish with the 
title of Edward VI., the impostor raised a small force, and invaded 

1 Henry represented the claims of the House of Lancaster, and soon after 
his coronation he married the Princess Elizabeth, a daughter of Edward IV., 
and the representative of the claims of the House of York. 

2 Edward, Earl of Warwick, was the son of George, Duke of Clarence, 
brother of Edward IV., and, after the queen and her children, was the nearest 
representative of the House of York. 



HENRY'S AVARICE AND DESPOTISM. 403 

England, but was straightway defeated, taken prisoner, and made 
a "scullion " in the king's kitchen. 

The adventures of the second impostor were more varied than 
those of the first, and his end was certainly more pathetic. The 
readiness with which people had accepted the claims of Simnel 
encouraged the Duchess of Burgundy, a sister of Edward IV., to 
think that she could train up a boy who could successfully play the 
part of a prince. She chose a Jewish lad, named Perkin Warbeck, 
a youth of courtly manners and fascinating conversation, whom 
she tutored to personate Richard, Duke of York, the younger of 
the children murdered in the Tower by Richard III. The pre- 
tender made Henry much trouble, — the king's enemies being 
provokingly easy to be convinced of the genuineness of the boy's 
claims, — but was finally brought to the scaffold at Tyburn (1499). 

Henry's Avarice and Despotism : Benevolences. — With the 
exception of the excitement caused by the claims of the impostors, 
Henry's reign was a very quiet one. His besetting sins were avarice 
and a Tudor love of despotic rule, and these vices colored all his 
acts. Much of his attention was given to heaping up a vast fortune. 
The various expedients to which he resorted in order to amass 
wealth were as ingenious as they were outrageous. Thus he would 
get Parliament to vote subsidies for a threatened war, and then 
settling the trouble by negotiations, would divert the money to his 
own private use. 

Another means adopted by the king for wringing money from 
his wealthy subjects was what were euphoniously termed Benev- 
olences. Magna Charta forbade the king to impose taxes without 
the consent of Parliament. But Henry did not like to convene 
Parliament, as he wished to rule like the kings of the Continent, 
guided simply by his own free will. So Benevolences were made 
to take the place of regular taxes. These were nothing more nor 
less than gifts extorted from the well-to-do by moral pressure. They 
were collected in much the same way that subscriptions for local or 
benevolent purposes are often raised. One of Henry's favorite 
ministers, named Morton, was particularly successful in his appeals 



404 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

for gifts of this kind. To those who lived splendidly he would say 
that it was very evident they were quite able to make a generous 
donation to their sovereign ; while to others who lived in a narrow 
and pinched way he would represent that their economical mode of 
life must have made them wealthy. This famous dilemma re- 
ceived the name of " Morton's Fork." 

The king found still another source of revenue in raking up long- 
forgotten claims of the crown, and in imposing fines for the violation 
of musty laws that everybody had forgotten. Two lawyers, named 
Empson and Dudley, became notorious through their industry 
and success in hunting up these " dusty records." 

Among the various laws executed with unusual vigor, not so much 
to sustain the dignity of the crown as to increase its revenues, was 
one known as the Statute of Liveries, which forbade the great lords 
to keep liveried retainers. This statute was intended to take away 
from the baronage what little power and importance remained to 
them after the ruin wrought by the Wars of the Roses. Henry 
watched this matter very closely, and greatly increased the receipts 
of the royal exchequer by the enforcements of fines. 1 

Maritime Discoveries. — It was during this reign that great 
geographical discoveries enlarged the boundaries of the world. In 
1492 Columbus announced to Europe the existence of land to the 
west. In 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed around the cape of Good 
Hope and found a water-road to the East Indies. 

The year before this last enterprise, Henry had fitted out a fleet 
under the command of John Cabot, a Venetian sailor doing busi- 
ness in England, for exploration in the western seas. Cabot first 
touched at Newfoundland, and then explored the coast he had run 
against, from that point to Virginia. He was the first European to 

1 " On a visit to the Earl of Oxford, one of the most devoted adherents of 
the Lancastrian cause, the king found two lines of liveried retainers drawn up 
to receive him. ' I thank you for your good cheer, my lord,' said Henry as 
they parted, 'but I may not endure to have my laws broken in my sight. My 
attorney must speak with you.' The Earl was glad to escape with a fine of 
,£10,000." — Green's History of the English People, Vol. II. p. 70. 



FOREIGN MATRIMONIAL ALLIANCES. 405 

look upon the American continent ; for Columbus at this time had 
seen only the islands in front of the Gulf of Mexico. 

Foreign Matrimonial Alliances. — The marriages of Henry's 
children must be noted by us here, because of the great influence 
these alliances had upon the after-course of English history. A 
common fear of France caused Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and 
Henry to form a protective alliance. To secure the permanency 
of the union it was deemed necessary to cement it by a marriage 
bond. The Spanish Infanta was accordingly betrothed to Arthur, 
Prince of Wales. Unfortunately, the prince died soon after the 
celebration of the nuptials. Trie Spanish sovereigns, still anxious 
to retain the advantages of an English alliance, now urged that the 
young widow be espoused by Arthur's brother Henry, and the 
English King, desirous on his side to preserve the friendship of 
Spain, assented to the betrothal. A rule of the Church, however, 
which forbade a man to marry his brother's widow, stood in the 
way of this arrangement ; but the queen- mother Isabella managed 
to secure a decree from the Pope granting permission in this case, 
and so the young widow was betrothed to Prince Henry. This 
alliance of the royal families of England and Spain led to many 
important consequences, as we shall learn. 

To relieve England of danger on her northern frontier, Henry 
steadily pursued the policy of a marriage alliance with Scotland. 
His wishes were realized when his eldest daughter Margaret be- 
came the wife of James IV., king of that realm. This was a most 
fortunate marriage, and finally led to the happy union of the two 
countries under a sinde crown. 



III. England severed from the Papacy by Henry VIII. 

(i5°9- I 547)- 

Opening of the Reign. — Henry VII. died in 1509. His son 
and successor, Henry VIII. , was but eighteen years of age when 
the event of his father's death brought him to the throne of Eng- 
land. He was attractive in person, animated in manner, and 



406 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

energetic in action. His tastes were literary, inclining him to look 
with favor upon the New Learning. 

The circumstances attending his succession were full of promise. 
The kingdom he inherited was at peace with itself and with all the 
world ; the royal coffers were full to overflowing with an enormous 
treasure ; and the acclamations of the people were long and hearty, 
for the gloomy, avaricious, and tyrannical disposition of his father 
had caused them to anticipate somewhat impatiently the transfer 
of the crown by death. Never did a prince assume his sceptre 
under more auspicious auguries of a happy and prosperous reign. 

Cardinal Wolsey. — We must here at the opening of Henry 
VIII.'s reign introduce his greatest minister, Thomas Wolsey 
(i 471-1530), as during all the first half of the reign his is the 
most prominent figure that meets our view. This man was one of 
the most remarkable characters of his generation. His ability had 
been recognized by Henry VII., who made him his minister and 
trusted counselor. Henry VIII. elevated him to the office of 
Archbishop of York, and made him Lord Chancellor of the realm. 
By means of flattery and discreet indulgence of the king's weak- 
nesses, the ambitious minister soon acquired complete ascendency 
over the mind of his youthful master. 

The Pope, courting the influence of Wolsey, made him a cardi- 
nal, and afterwards Papal legate in England. He was now at the 
head of affairs in both State and Church. His revenues from his 
many offices were enormous, and enabled him to assume a style of 
living astonishingly magnificent. His household numbered five 
hundred persons; and a truly royal train, made up of bishops and 
nobles, attended him with great pomp and parade wherever he 
went. The splendor of his equipage and livery drew all eyes upon 
him. His munificence was unbounded. He built a costly palace 
at Hampton Court, a few miles from London, and as soon as the 
mansion was completed, made a present of it to Henry. It was so 
large and elegant that it was long a favorite residence of the kings 
of England. 

Wolsey was a valuable friend of the New Learning. He laid the 



THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN FIELD. 407 

foundation of a college at Oxford, which, after the Cardinal's death, 
was completed by Henry. 

Henry's Continental Wars. — A few weeks after his accession 
Henry was married to the Spanish princess Catherine, which meant 
that he had resolved to foster the Spanish alliance. In 15 12, join- 
ing what was known as the Holy League, — a union against the 
French king, of which the Pope was the head, — he made his first 
campaign in France, with scarcely any better object in view than 
to " win his spurs," and to gather fresh martial glory on the old 
fields of Crecy and Agincourt. The year following his first invasion, 
in an engagement known as the " Battle of the Spurs," he gained a 
bloodless victory over the French. 

But these continental wars of Henry did England no good, and 
brought but little glory to himself. On the other hand, they alien- 
ated some of the king's best friends, especially lovers of the New 
Learning, who had looked to the young king to inaugurate an era 
of peace and reform. 

The Battle of Flodden Field (15 13). — Henry's invasion of 
France, however, led to a most important and decisive battle be- 
tween the English and Scots, — the Battle of Flodden Field (15 13), 
— which resulted in a memorable victory for the English. While 
Henry was across the Channel, James IV. of Scotland thought to give 
aid to the French king by invading England. So a Scottish army 
was sent across the frontiers to harry the northern counties. At 
Flodden, beneath the Cheviot Hills, it was met by an English army, 
and completely overwhelmed. King James was killed, and the 
flower of the Scottish nobility were left dead upon the field. It 
was the most terrible disaster that had ever fallen upon the Scottish 
nation. Scott, whose poem entitled Marmion, a Talc of Flodden 
Field, commemorates the battle, says, " Scarce a family of emi- 
nence but had an ancestor at Flodden, and there is no province of 
Scotland, even at this day, where the battle is mentioned without 
a sensation of terror and sorrow." 

Henry as Defender of the Faith. — It was in the eighth year of 
Henry VIII. 's reign that the monk Martin Luther tacked upon the 



408 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

door of the Wittenberg church his famous ninety-five theses. Eng- 
land was stirred with the rest of Western Christendom. Henry 
wrote a Latin treatise refuting the articles of the audacious monk. 
Henry maintained the divine authority of the Pope, because the 
validity of his marriage with Catherine depended upon the validity 
of the Papal act whereby the Levitical and canon law which for- 
bade a man to marry his brother's widow was annulled, and per- 
mission given to Henry to marry the wife of his deceased brother 
Arthur ; and that act was invalid unless the Pope has divine 
authority to dispense with a law laid down in the Bible. 

The Pope, Leo X., rewarded Henry's Catholic zeal by conferring 
upon him the title of " Defender of the Faith "(1521). This title 
was retained by Henry after the secession of the Church of England 
from the Papal See, and is borne by his successors at this day, 
though they are " defenders " of quite a different faith from that in 
the defense of which Henry first earned the title. 

Henry Seeks to be Divorced from Catherine. — We have now 
to relate some circumstances which changed Henry from a zealous 
supporter of the Papacy into its bitterest enemy. 

Henry's marriage with Catherine of Aragon had been prompted 
by policy and not by love. Of the five children born of the union, 
all had died save a sickly daughter named Mary. In these succes- 
sive afflictions which left him without a son to succeed him, Henry 
saw, or feigned to see, a certain sign of Heaven's displeasure 
because he had taken to wife the widow of his brother. 

And now a new circumstance arose, if it had not existed for 
some time previous to this. Henry conceived a violent passion for 
Anne Boleyn, a beautiful and vivacious maid of honor in the 
queen's household. This new affection so quickened the King's 
conscience, that he soon became fully convinced that it was his 
duty to put Catherine aside. 1 

1 Political considerations, without doubt, had much if not most to do in 
bringing Henry to this state of mind. He was ready to divorce Catherine and 
break openly with Spain, because the Emperor Charles V., to whom he had 
offered the hand of the Princess Mary, had married the Infanta of Portugal, 



THE FALL OF WOLSEY. 409 

Accordingly Henry asked the Pope, Clement VII., to grant him 
a divorce. 

The request placed Clement in a very embarrassing position ; for 
if he refused to grant it, he would offend Henry ; and if he granted 
it, he would terribly offend Charles V., who was Catherine's relative. 
Besides, all the countries of Northern Europe were ripe for revolt 
from the Papal See, and such an act as this — one Pope annulling that 
which had been sanctioned by a previous one — might tear in twain 
the Catholic Church. So Clement in his bewilderment was led to 
temporize, to make promises to Henry and then evade them. Finally, 
after a year's delay, he appointed Cardinal Wolsey and an Italian car- 
dinal named Campeggio as commissioners to hold a sort of court in 
England to determine the validity of Henry's marriage to Catherine. 
A year or more dragged along without anything being accomplished, 
and then Clement, influenced by the Emperor Charles, ordered 
Henry and Catherine both to appear before him at Rome. 

The Fall of Wolsey. — Henry's patience was now completely 
exhausted. Becoming persuaded that Wolsey was not exerting 
himself as he might to secure the divorce, he banished him from 
the court. The hatred of Anne Boleyn and of others pursued 
the fallen minister. He was deposed from all his offices save the 
archbishopric. His splendid palace at York Place, now known as 
Whitehall, was seized for the use of the king. Finally he was 
arrested on the charge of high treason. While on his way to 
London the unhappy minister, broken in spirits and in health, was 
prostrated by a fatal fever. As he lay dying in the arms of the 
kind monks of Leicester Abbey, he uttered these words, which 
have lived so long after him : " Had I served my God as diligently 
as I have served my king, He would not have given me over in 
my gray hairs " (1530). 

The Opinion of the Universities. — Just before Wolsey's disgrace 
a young priest of Cambridge, named Thomas Cranmer, had sug- 
gested that the universities in England and upon the continent 

and thus cast aside the English alliance. On this point consult Seebohm, The 
Era of the Protestant Revolution, pp. 1 78-180. 



410 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

should be asked to give their opinion on the validity of the king's 
marriage with Catherine. If they all agreed that the union was 
invalid, then the Pope could hardly refuse to grant the divorce. 
The plan pleased Henry, and to the universities, accordingly, the 
case was submitted. The question at issue was simply this : Can 
the Pope annul the law of God, and thus make it lawful for a man 
to marry his brother's widow? This of course involved the ques- 
tion of the divine authority of the Pope, for confessedly only 
divine authority can dispense with a divine law. 

The opinions of the learned doctors were so conflicting, and 
especially in the case of the English universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge so manifestly tainted with bribery, that nothing save 
delay resulted from this plan of settlement. 

Thomas Cromwell. — A man of great power and mark now 
rises to our notice. Upon the disgrace of Wolsey, a faithful 
attendant of his named Thomas Cromwell straightway assumed 
in Henry's regard the place from which the Cardinal had fallen. 
He was just the opposite of Wolsey in caring nothing for pomp 
and parade. For the space of ten years this wonderful man 
shaped the policy of Henry's government. He was the English 
Richelieu. What he proposed to himself was the establishment 
of a royal despotism upon the ruin of every other power in the 
State. Parliament, Church, and everything were to be subjected 
to a single will, and that single will was to be Henry's. 

Man of iron will that he was, Cromwell pursued with such ter- 
rible relentlessness his aims, that the period during which his 
power was supreme has been called the English Reign of Terror. 
The executioner's ax was constantly wet with the blood of those 
who stood in his way, or who in any manner incurred his 
displeasure. 

It was to the bold suggestions of this man that Henry now 
listened, when all other means of gratifying his passion had been 
tried in vain. Cromwell's advice to the king was to waste no 
more time in negotiating with the Pope, but at once to renounce 
the jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, proclaim himself Supreme 



THE ACT OF SUPREMACY. 411 

Head of the Church in England, and then get a decree of divorce 
from his own courts. 

The Breach with Rome.— The advice of Cromwell was acted upon, 
and by a series of steps England was swiftly and forever carried out 
from under the authority of the Roman See. Henry first virtually 
cut the Gordian knot by a secret marriage with Anne Boleyn, not- 
withstanding a Papal decree threatening him with excommunica- 
tion should he dare to do so. Parliament, which was entirely 
subservient to Henry's wishes, now passed a law known as the 
Statute of Appeals, which made it a crime for any Englishman 
to carry a case out of the kingdom to the courts at Rome. Cran- 
mer, the Cambridge doctor who had advised the king to submit the 
question of the validity of his union with Catherine to the universities, 
and who had further served him by writing a book in favor of the 
divorce, was, in accordance with the new programme, made arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. He at once formed a court, tried the case, 
and of course declared the king's marriage with Catherine null and 
void from the very first, and his union with Anne legal and right. 

The Act of Supremacy (1534). — The decisive step had now 
been taken : the Rubicon had been crossed. These high-handed 
measures produced a terrible excitement at Rome. The Pope in 
great wrath issued a decree excommunicating Henry and relieving 
his subjects from their allegiance. Whatever hope there may 
have existed up to this time of a reconciliation between the 
English sovereign and the Roman See was completely annihilated 
by this act. Henry resolved to destroy forever and at a single 
blow the power of Rome within his realm. Parliament was called, 
and a celebrated bill known as the Act of Supremacy was passed 
(1534). This statute made Henry the Supreme Head of the 
Church in England, vesting in him absolute control over all its 
offices, and turning into his hands the revenues which had hitherto 
flowed into the coffers of the Roman See. A denial of the title 
given the king by the statute was made high treason. This statute 
laid the foundations of the Anglican Church. 

Henry as Supreme Head of the Church. — Henry now set up 



412 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

in England a little Popedom of his own. Never did Roman 
Pontiff exercise authority in a more audacious or tyrannical man- 
ner. Appointing Cromwell his vicegerent in ecclesiastical affairs, 
Henry established a most vexatious censorship of the pulpit. What 
the clergy might and what they might not preach was carefully 
prescribed. Even the skeleton of their sermon was sometimes 
prepared for them. The king himself drew up a sort of creed 
which everybody must believe, or at least pretend to believe. The 
doctrines of Purgatory, of indulgences, of masses for the dead, of 
pilgrimages, of the worship of images and relics were condemned ; 
but the doctrines of transubstantiation and of confession to a priest 
were retained. Every head of a family and every teacher was 
commanded to teach his children or pupils the Lord's Prayer, the 
Ten Commandments, and the new Creed. 

The entire Bible was now (in 1535) for the first time given to the 
English people in their native tongue. The person entrusted with 
this great work was Bishop Coverdale, who in the preparation of 
the work availed himself of the translation of Tyndale, who just 
before this time had put the New and a considerable part of the 
Old Testament into English. 

Thus was the English Church cared for by its self-appointed 
shepherd. What it should be called under Henry it would be 
hard to say. It was not Protestant ; and it was just as far from 
being Catholic. We can only say that it was in a transition state. 

The Suppression of the Monasteries. — The suppression of the 
monasteries was one of Henry's most high-handed measures. 
Several things led him to resolve on the extinction of these 
religious houses. For one thing, he coveted their wealth, which 
at this time included probably one fifth of the lands of the realm. 
Then the monastic orders were openly or secretly opposed to 
Henry's claims of supremacy in religious matters ; and this 
naturally caused him to regard them with jealousy and disfavor. 
Hence their ruin was planned. In this matter Thomas Cromwell 
took a prominent part. 

In order to make the act appear as reasonable as possible, it was 



THE SUPPRESSION OF PHP MONASTERIES. 413 

planned to make the charge of immorality the ostensible ground 
of their suppression. Accordingly two royal commissioners were 
appointed to inspect the monasteries, and make a report upon 
what they might see and learn. If we may believe the report, and 
it was doubtless in the main truthful, the smaller houses were con- 
ducted in a most shameful manner, the monks being found guilty of 
all manner of crimes, — indolence, drunkenness, licentiousness, and 
simony. The larger houses were fairly free from these faults. 
Many of them served as schools, hospitals, and inns, and all 
distributed alms to the poor who knocked at their gates. 

But the undoubted usefulness and irreproachable character of 
the larger foundations did not avail to avert the indiscriminate 
ruin of all. When the "Black Book," as the report of the 
commissioners was called, was read in the House of Commons, 
and the iniquities practiced in many of the monasteries under the 
guise of religion were exposed, the chamber was filled with cries 
of " Down with them ! Down with them ! " At once an act 
was passed which dissolved between three and four hundred of the 
smaller monasteries, and gave all their property to the king (1536). 

The unscrupulous act stirred up a rebellion in the north of 
England, known as the " Pilgrimage of Grace." This was sup- 
pressed with great severity, and soon afterwards all the larger 
monasteries were also dissolved, their possessors generally sur- 
rendering the property voluntarily into the hands of the king, lest 
a worse thing than the loss of their houses and lands should come 
upon them. Altogether there were 90 colleges, no hospitals, 
2,374 chantries and chapels, and 645 monasteries broken up. 
Pensions were granted to the dispossessed monks, which relieved 
in part the suffering and hardship caused by the proceeding. 

A portion of the confiscated wealth of the houses was used in 
founding schools and colleges, and a part for the establishment of 
bishoprics ; but by far the greater portion was distributed among 
the adherents and favorites of the king. The leading houses of the 
English aristocracy of to-day, may, according to Hallam, trace the 
title of their estates back to these confiscated lands of the religious 



414 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORM ATI OX. 

houses. Thus a new nobility was raised up whose interests led them 
to oppose any return to Rome ; for in such an event their estates 
were liable of course to be restored to the monasteries. 

Persecution of Catholics and Protestants. — Our disapproval 
of Henry's unscrupulous conduct in compassing the ruin of the 
religious houses flames into hot indignation when we come to 
speak of his atrocious crimes against the lives and consciences of 
his subjects. 

The royal reformer persecuted alike Catholics and Protestants. 
Thus, on one occasion, three Catholics who denied that the king 
was the rightful head of the Church, and three Protestants who 
disputed the doctrine of the real presence in the sacrament (a 
dogma which Henry had retained in his creed) were dragged on 
the same sled to the place of execution. 

The most illustrious of the king's victims were the learned Sir 
Thomas More and the aged Bishop Fisher, both of whom were 
brought to the block because their conscience would not allow 
them to acknowledge that the king was rightfully the Supreme 
Head of the Church of England. 

Henry's Wives. — Henry's troubles with his wives form a curi- 
ous and shameful page in the history of England's kings. Anne 
Boleyn retained the affections of her royal husband only a few 
months. She was charged with unfaithfulness and beheaded, 
leaving a daughter who became the famous Queen Elizabeth. 
The day after the execution of Anne the king married Jane Sey- 
mour, who died the following year. She left a son by the name 
of Edward. 

The fourth marriage of the king was to Anne of Cleves, who 
enjoyed her queenly honors only a few months. The king becom- 
ing enamored of a young lady named Catherine Howard, Anne 
was divorced on the charge of a previous betrothal, and a new 
alliance formed. But Catherine was proved guilty of misconduct, 
and her head fell upon the block. The king improved the short 
interval between her death and his next marriage by composing a 
book entitled "A Necessary Doctrine for any Christian Man." 



HENRY'S DEATH AND CHARACTER. 415 

The sixth and last wife of this amatory monarch was Catherine 
Parr. She was a discreet woman, and managed to outlive her 
husband. 

Henry's Death and Character. — Henry died in 1547. His 
many marriages and divorces had so complicated the question of 
the succession, that Parliament, to avoid disputes after Henry's 
death, had given him power to settle the matter by will. This he 
did, directing that the crown should descend to his son Edward 
and his heirs ; in case Edward died childless, it was to go to Mary 
and her heirs, and then to Elizabeth and her heirs. 

Very diverse views have been held of Henry's character. Lov- 
ers of the Church of Rome have pictured him as an -atrocious 
monster, without a single redeeming virtue ; while the friends of 
the Protestant cause have naturally exalted him to the first place 
among England's kings, and eulogized him as the most eminent 
champion of the Reformation. 

If the plain truth be told, he was doubtless, if we except King 
John, the most cruel, capricious, arbitrary, self-willed, and remorse- 
less tyrant that ever sat upon the English throne. As we said of 
John, so may we say of Henry, that the English people are greatly 
indebted to him, yet without owing him any thanks. He delivered 
England, indeed, from the power of the Papal See, and became 
the founder, if that distinction may be given to any single man, of 
the Anglican Church ; but in all this he was actuated rather by 
selfish motives than by a true regard for the welfare of his people, 
or by sympathy with the teachings of Luther. 

Literature under Henry VIII. : More's Utopia. — The most 
prominent literary figure of this period is Sir Thomas More. The 
work upon which his fame as a writer mainly rests is his Utopia, or 
" Nowhere," a political romance like Plato's Republic or Sir Philip 
Sidney's Arcadia. It pictures an imaginary kingdom away on an 
island beneath the equinoctial in the New World, then just dis- 
covered, where the laws, manners, and customs of the people were 
represented as being ideally perfect. 

It was the wretchedness, the ignorance, the superstition, the social 



416 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

tyranny, the religious intolerance, the despotic government of the 
times which inspired the Utopia. The New Learning was indeed 
stirring the minds of men, but it had not yet done its work ; im- 
provements had been made in domestic architecture, yet the great 
mass of the people were still living in miserable mud hovels, like 
those of the Irish tenants of to-day. Society was simply " a con- 
spiracy of the rich against the poor." The government of Henry 
and his ministers was an Oriental tyranny. 

It was this state of things that forced from the sensitive soul of 
More this complaint. " No such cry of pity for the poor," says 
Green, " had been heard since the days of Piers Ploughman." 
But Mor.e's was not simply such a cry of despair as was that of 
Langland. He saw a better future ; and with a view of reforming 
them, pointed out the existing ills of society and their remedy. 
He did all this by telling how things were in " Nowhere," — how 
the houses and grounds were all inviting, the streets broad and 
clean ; how everybody was taught to read and write, and no 
one obliged to work more than six hours a day ; how drinking- 
houses, brawls, wars, and changing parties were unknown ; how 
the criminal classes were treated with the view of effecting their 
reformation ; how in this happy republic every person had a 
part in the government, and was allowed to follow what religion 
he chose. 

In this wise way More suggested improvements in social, politi- 
cal, and religious matters. He did not expect, however, that 
Henry would follow all his suggestions, for he closes his account of 
the Utopians with this admission : " I confess that many things in 
the commonwealth of Utopia I rather wish than hope to see 
adopted in our own." 

And, indeed. More himself, before his death, materially changed 
his views regarding religious persecution. Although in his book 
he had expressed his decided disapproval of persecution for con- 
science' sake, by crediting the Utopians with a law that condemned 
to banishment any person who should attempt to effect a change 
in another's opinion by any other means than that of persuasion, 



CHANGES IN THE RELIGION. 417 

yet he afterwards, driven into reaction by the terrible excesses 
of the Peasants' War in Germany, and by other popular tumults 
which seemed to be the outgrowth of the Protestant movement, 
favored persecution, and advised that unity of faith be preserved 
by the use of force. 

IV. Chances in Creed and Ritual under Edward VI. 
« ( I 547-i553)- 

Events at the Accession. — In accordance with the provisions 
of Henry's will, his only son, Edward, by Jane Seymour, succeeded 
him. As Edward was but a mere child of nine years, the govern- 
ment was conducted by a Council of Regency, at the head of 
which was the young king's uncle, the Earl of Hertford, who was 
afterwards created Duke of Somerset. Henry had taken care that 
this Council should be made up of an equal number of Protestants 
and Catholics ; but Hertford, who was an unscrupulous and ambi- 
tious man, and a patron of the reformed religion, drove out the 
latter, and assumed royal power, under the title of Protector of the 
Realm. 

The young king was carefully taught the doctrines of the re- 
formers, and many changes were made in the creed and service of 
the English Church, which carried it farther away from the Church 
of Rome. It is these changes in the religion, effected partly under 
the rule of the Duke of Somerset and in part during the administra- 
tion of his successor, the Duke of Northumberland, that constitute 
the events most worthy of our attention. They will show us what 
were the chief points on which the two great religious parties of 
the sixteenth century differed, and what constitute the essential 
distinctions between Protestantism and Catholicism. 

Changes in the Religion. — By a royal decree all pictures and 
images and crosses were cleared from the churches : the frescoes were 
covered with whitewash, and the stained glass windows were broken 
in pieces ; the robe and the surplice were cast away as "the livery of 
the Harlot of Babylon" ; the use of tapers, holy water, and incense 



418 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

were forbidden ; the worship of the Virgin and the saints was pro- 
hibited ; belief in Purgatory was denounced as a superstition kept 
up for purposes of gain, and prayers for the dead were interdicted ; 
the real or bodily presence of Christ in the bread and wine of the 
sacrament was denied ; the prohibition against the marriage of the 
clergy was annulled (a measure which pleased the clergy and 
reconciled them to the other sweeping innovations) ; and the ser- 
vices of the Church, which had hitherto been conducted in Latin, 
were ordered to be said in the language of the people* 

In order that the provision last mentioned might be effectually 
carried out, the English Book of Common Prayer was prepared by 
Archbishop Cranmer, and the first copy issued in 1549. This 
book, which was in the main simply a translation of the old Latin 
" missal and breviary," with the subsequent change of a word here 
and a passage there to keep it in accord with the growing new 
doctrines, is the same that is used in the Anglican Church at the 
present time. 

In 1552 were published the famous Forty-two Articles of Reli- 
gion, which formed a compendious creed of the reformed faith. 
These Articles, reduced finally to thirty-nine, form the present 
standard of faith and doctrine in the Church of England. 

Persecutions to secure Uniformity. — These sweeping changes 
and innovations in the old creed and in the services of the Church 
would have worked little hardship or wrong had only everybody, 
as in More's happy republic, been left free to favor and follow what 
religion he would. But unfortunately it was only away in " No- 
where " that men were allowed perfect freedom of conscience and 
worship. The idea of toleration had not yet dawned upon the 
world, save in the happier moments of some such generous and 
wide-horizoned soul as his who conceived the Utopia. 

By royal edict all preachers and teachers were forced to sign the 
Forty-two Articles ; and severe enactments, known as " Acts for the 
Uniformity of Service," punished with severe penalties any depar- 
ture from the forms of the new prayer-book. The Princess Mary, 
who remained a firm and conscientious adherent of the old faith, 



LADY J AXE GREY. 419 

was not allowed to have the Roman service in her own private 
chapel. Even the powerful intercession of the Emperor Charles V. 
availed nothing. Idolatry in high places could not be tolerated. 

Many persons during the reign were imprisoned for refusing to 
conform to the new worship ; while two at least were given to the 
flames as " heretics and contemners of the Book of Common 
Prayer." Probably a large majority of the English people were at 
this time good Catholics at heart. 

V. Reaction under Mary (155 3- 1558). 

Lady Jane Grey. — The story of Lady Jane Grey is one of the 
saddest in English history, being all the more pathetic that her 
hard fate came to her through no fault of her own, but on account 
of the faults and ambitions of others. Told very briefly the story 
is as follows. 

After the fall of Somerset — he was beheaded for treason in 
1549 — the management of affairs came into the hands of the 
ambitious Duke of Northumberland. The aim of this unscrupulous 
minister was to raise one of his own family to the throne. As a 
part of his scheme he married his son, Guildford Dudley, to Lady 
Jane Grey, a grandniece of Henry VIII., whom he had persuaded 
the young king, now in failing health and manifestly near his end, 
to name as his successor, to the exclusion of the princesses Mary 
and Elizabeth. Edward's own feelings undoubtedly concurred 
with the wishes of Northumberland, because Mary was a zealous 
Catholic, while Jane Grey was an earnest Protestant. Scarcely had 
matters been thus arranged when Edward died, Northumberland 
not escaping suspicion of having hastened his end. 

Immediately upon the king's death an effort was made to secure 
the persons of Mary and Elizabeth, but being warned, they escaped. 
Northumberland knew that he must now act boldly and openly : 
his daughter-in-law must at once be crowned, and proclaimed 
queen of the realm. She as yet knew nothing of the scheme that 
was to elevate her to a throne. When the plan was revealed to 
her, she was overcome with dismay and grief. She refused the 



420 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

proffered crown, and entreated that the princesses Mary and Eliza- 
beth should not be deprived of their birthright. But the shrinking 
girl was finally over-persuaded by the united entreaties of her hus- 
band and parents, and allowed the crown to be placed upon her 
head. 

Lady Jane Grey was obliged to wear for only nine days the crown 
thus thrust upon her ; for the people, believing that Mary was the 
rightful heir to the throne, rallied about her, and she was proclaimed 
queen amidst great demonstrations of loyalty. Northumberland 
and others concerned in crowning Lady Jane were tried for treason 
and executed. The youth and innocence of the " nine-day queen " 
protected her for the moment, though some clamored for her death. 
But the turn of events soon brought her to the scaffold. Mary 
having set about the restoring of the Roman Catholic worship, and, 
moreover, having engaged herself in marriage to Philip II. of Spain 
(a zealous Catholic, it will be recalled), a rebellion was organized, 
which had for its object the breaking of the Spanish alliance and 
the raising of the Princess Elizabeth or Lady Jane Grey to the 
throne. The uprising was suppressed, Elizabeth was confined in 
the Tower, and Lady Jane and her husband, though they had taken 
no part in the movement, were both condemned to be executed. 

Writers of every party unite in commending the virtues and 
praising the rare beauty and accomplishments of the unfortunate 
Lady Jane Grey. She had a familiar knowledge of Latin and Greek, 
and could converse easily in various modern tongues. We are told 
how the marvelous range of her information, the brilliancy of her 
intellect, and the eloquence of her language excited the wonder 
and admiration of the learned men and philosophers whom the 
fame of her accomplishments and talents drew about her. 

Reconciliation with Rome. — The severity of the punishment 
which was meted out to the leaders of the Protestant revolt so 
intimidated the nation that there was no further opposition mani- 
fested to the wishes of Mary in respect of the Spanish alliance. 
Parliament submissively approved the articles of the marriage. 
Philip, after some delay, for he had but little love for England and 



THE MARTYRS: LATIMER, RIDLEY, AND CRAXMER. 421 

still less for Mary, came over to the island, and the wedding cere- 
monies were celebrated with much pomp and parade. 

The union of the bigotry of Philip with the zeal of Mary resulted 
in the full re-establishment of the Catholic worship throughout the 
realm. Negotiations with Rome ended in the sending of Cardinal 
Pole as the Legate of the Pope to receive the nation back within 
the folds of the true Church. 

The Legate was welcomed in England with extravagant joy 
by the lovers of the ancient faith. "Thou art Pole," exclaimed 
an enthusiastic archdeacon in his speech of welcome, " thou art 
Pole, and thou art our Polar Star to light us to the kingdom of the 
heavens." Parliament voted that the nation should return to its 
obedience to the Papal See ; and then the members of both houses 
fell upon their knees to receive at the hands of the Legate absolu- 
tion from the sin of heresy and schism. The sincerity of their 
repentance was attested by their repeal of all the acts of Henry 
and Edward by which the new worship had been set up in the 
land. The joy at Rome was unbounded. The holy father, Pope 
Julius, throwing his arms about the messenger who brought the 
news, embraced him in transports of pious exultation. The prod- 
igal had returned to his father's house. 

But not quite everything done b/the reformers was undone. 
Parliament refused to restore the confiscated Church lands, which 
was very natural, as much of this property was now in the hands 
of the lords and commoners. Mary, however, in her zeal for the 
ancient faith, restored a great part of the property still in the pos- 
session of the crown, and refounded many of the ruined monas- 
teries and abbeys. 

The Martyrs : Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer. — With the 
re-establishment of the Roman worship, the fires of persecution 
were kindled anew. The three most eminent victims of what is 
known as the Marian persecution were Latimer, Ridley, and 
Cranmer. 

One of the principal charges against Latimer and Ridley was 
their denial of transubstantiation, or the doctrine that the bread 



422 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

and wine of the sacrament are, through the blessing of the priest, 
actually changed into the blood and flesh of Christ. Refusing to 
recant their heresy, they were condemned to the flames. Both 
were burnt at the same stake. As the torch was applied to the 
fagots, the aged Latimer — he was eighty years old — encouraged 
his companion with these memorable words : " Master Ridley, 
play the man : we shall this day, by God's grace, light such a 
candle in England as I trust shall never be put out." Latimer's 
bearing was in keeping with his exhortation. He died " bathing 
his hands in the flame as though it were water." 

Cranmer possessed a less resolute spirit than Latimer. He 
shrank from the terrible ordeal, and to save his life declared that 
he believed all the doctrines of the Catholic Church. But in spite 
of his confession and recantation his enemies resolved that he 
should die, because of the prominent part he had taken in the 
setting up of the reformed worship. 

Just before he was committed to the flames, the archbishop was 
given an opportunity to speak. Now came a most extraordinary 
scene. Instead of repeating the confession he had made to his 
judges, he declared that he had made that confession through fear 
of death, that it had troubled his conscience " more than any 
other thing that he had ever said or done in his life," and that 
" as for the Pope, with all his false doctrines, he utterly refused 
him, as Christ's enemy and Antichrist." 

Cries from every side of " Pull him down," " Away with him," 
drowned the voice of the archbishop. Before he could say more 
he was hurried to the stake. The spirit that once had faltered 
was resolute enough now. Thrusting his right hand into the 
flames, and holding it there unflinchingly, he exclaimed, " This 
was the hand that wrote it [the recantation], therefore it shall 
first suffer punishment." 

Altogether, between two and three hundred persons suffered 
martyrdom during the reign of Mary. Nearly one fourth of these 
were women and children. Hundreds of others endured impris- 
onment and various other penalties. 



THE LOSS OF CALAIS. 423 

The effect of these persecutions was just the opposite of that 
intended. The constancy of the martyrs in the face of death 
drew multitudes to the faith for which they suffered. That for 
which a man dares to die is always sure to be thought by the living 
worthy of their attention. 

Mary should not be judged too harshly for the part she took in 
the persecutions that disfigured her reign. It was not her fault, but 
the fault of the age, that these things were done. Punishment of 
heresy was then regarded, by both Catholics and Protestants alike, 
as a duty which could be neglected by those in authority only at 
the peril of Heaven's displeasure. And thinking as they did, that 
one's eternal happiness depends upon the correctness of one's 
opinion as to all the articles of a particular creed, the men of that 
age could consistently do nothing less than labor to exterminate 
heresy with ax, and sword, and fagot. It were far better, so they 
reasoned, that a few should be cast into temporal fire, than that 
not only these, but perhaps thousands of others whom they might 
lead into error, should hereafter be cast into everlasting flames. 

The Loss of Calais. — The marriage of Philip and Mary had 
been earnestly wished for by the Emperor Charles V., in order 
that Philip, in those wars with France which he well knew must 
be a part of the bequest he should make to his son, might have 
the powerful aid of England. This was Philip's chief reason 
in seeking the alliance, and in due time he called upon Mary 
for assistance in a war against the French king. The English 
people were very reluctant to take any part in the quarrel ; but 
Mary's Council at last yielded to her urgent solicitations, and aid 
was extended to Philip. 

The result was the loss to England of Calais, which the French, 
by an unexpected attack, snatched out of the hands of its garrison 
(1558). The English had proudly held this place for a hundred 
years and more after all else in France had been lost, and it was 
a very great mortification to them to be thus pushed entirely off 
from French soil. Mary, in her distress, exclaimed, " When I die, 
Calais will be found written on my heart." 



424 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

The unfortunate Queen, suffering in mind and in body, neglected 
by Philip and hated by her own people, did not live out the year 
that marked the loss of Calais. 



VI. Final Establishment of Protestantism under Elizabeth 
(1558-1603). 

The Queen. — Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII. and 
Anne Boleyn. She seems to have inherited the characteristics 
of both parents ; hence the inconsistencies of her disposition. 

When the death of Mary called Elizabeth to the throne, she 
was twenty-five years of age. Like her father, she favored the 
reformed faith rather from policy than conviction. It was to 
the Protestants alone that she could look for support ; her title 
to the crown was denied by every true Catholic in the realm, for 
she was the child of that marriage which the Pope had forbidden 
under pain of the anathemas of the Church. 

Elizabeth possessed a strong will, indomitable courage, admir- 
able judgment, and great political tact. It was these qualities 
which rendered her reign the strongest and most illustrious in 
the record of England's sovereigns, and raised the nation from 
a position of insignificance to a foremost place among the states 
of Europe. 

An accomplished scholar, Elizabeth could speak with fluency 
two or three modern languages, and was able, on short notice, to 
" rub up her rusty Greek," so as to reply in that tongue to an 
address from one of the universities. 

Along with her good and queenly qualities and accomplish- 
ments, Elizabeth had many unamiable traits and unwomanly ways. 
She was capricious, treacherous, unscrupulous, ungrateful, and 
cruel. She seemed almost wholly devoid of a moral or religious 
sense. Deception and falsehood were her usual weapons in diplo- 
macy. " In the profusion and recklessness of her lies," declares 
Green, " Elizabeth stood without a peer in Christendom." She 



ELIZA BE I H ' S MINIS 1 'ERS. 425 

was also a hard swearer, it being no unusual thing for her to stop 
the deliberations of her Council to swear at her ministers " like a 
fishwife." Her letters were often accentuated with terrific oaths. 
Her vanity and love of flattery rendered her ridiculous. She 
would toy with her rings in order to attract attention to the beauty 
of her hands. She loved pageants and display in dress, and was 
a coquette at seventy, dancing at that age with spirit, if not with 
grace. Her wardrobe, at the time of her death, contained, it is 
said, three thousand dresses. She very seldom wore the same 
dress twice. 1 

Yet, notwithstanding all the faults of this remarkable woman, in 
spite of the lack in her of all elevation of character, of all generous 
enthusiasms and sympathies, she was always popular. Her sub- 
jects' love is embalmed in the familiar title they bestowed upon 
her, — " Good Queen Bess." 

Elizabeth never married, notwithstanding Parliament was con- 
stantly urging her to do so, and suitors, among whom was Philip 
II. of Spain, were as numerous as those who sought the hand 
of Penelope. She declared that on her coronation day she was 
married to the English realm, and that she would have no other 
husband. 

Her Ministers. — One secret of the strength and popularity of 
Elizabeth's government was the admirable judgment she exercised 
in her choice of advisers. The courtiers with whom she crowded 
her receptions might be frivolous and worthless persons, for all 
Elizabeth desired of them was that they should minister to her 
pleasure ; but about her Council-board she gathered the wisest 
and strongest men to be found in the realm. 

1 Elizabeth's fondness for dress and parade created a national extravagance 
in these matters. Young spendthrift nobles " sported manurs on their 
backs." Both ladies and gentlemen wore enormous ruffs. Elizabeth decreed 
that these should not be over " a nayle of a yeard in depth." One would sup- 
pose that all might have managed to keep their ruffs within these limits, but it 
seems not; for we are told that Elizabeth stationed " serious persons" at the 
gates of London to cut down those exceeding the regulation width. 



426 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

The most famous of the Queen's ministers was William Cecil, 
a man of great sagacity and ceaseless industry, to whose able coun- 
sel and prudent management is largely due the success of Eliza- 
beth's reign. He stood at the head of the Queen's Council for 
forty years. His son Robert, Lord Bacon, and Sir Francis Wal- 
singham were also prominent among the Queen's advisers. 

Re-establishment of the Reformed Church. — As Mary undid 
the work in religion of Henry and Edward, so now her work 
is undone by Elizabeth. The religious houses that had been 
re-established by Mary were again dissolved, and Parliament, by 
the two important Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, relaid the 
foundations of the Anglican Church. 

The Act of Supremacy required all the clergy, and every person 
holding office under the crown, to take an oath declaring the 
Queen to be the supreme governor of the realm in all spiritual as 
well as temporal things, and renouncing the authority or jurisdiction 
of any foreign prince or prelate. Of course all this was aimed at 
the pretensions of the Roman See. 

Of the fourteen bishops of the realm, all save one refused to 
take the oath, and were therefore removed from their offices. 
The minor clergy for the most part submitted, and were allowed 
to retain their benefices. 

For refusal to take the oath, many Catholics during Elizabeth's 
reign suffered death, and many more endured within the Tower 
the worse horrors of the rack. The employment of this form of 
torture aroused much indignation among the Catholics throughout 
Europe. The Queen's minister, Lord Cecil, replied to the charge 
of cruelty by stating in a public paper that the jailors were in- 
structed to handle the rack " in as charitable a manner as such a 
thing might be," and that none of those put to the rack were 
asked " any question as to point of doctrine, but merely concern- 
ing their plots and conspiracies." 

The Act of Uniformity was a more unjustifiable measure than 
the former, as it touched more positively matters of conscience. 
It forbade any clergyman to use any but the Anglican liturgy, and 



THE PROTESTANT NON-CONFORMISTS. -127 

required every person to attend the established Church on Sabbath 
and holy days. For every absence a fine of one shilling was 
imposed. This harsh and unjust statute was rigidly enforced, 
although it is probable that Elizabeth herself cared but little what 
opinions persons entertained, provided they outwardly conformed 
to the established worship. The persecutions which arose under 
this law caused many Catholics to seek freedom of worship in 
other countries. 

The Protestant Non-Conformists. — The Catholics were not 
the only persons among Elizabeth's subjects who were opposed to 
the Anglican worship. There were Protestant non-conformists — 
the Puritans and Separatists — who troubled her almost as much 
as the Romanists. 

The Puritans were so named because they desired a pure?- form 
of worship than the Anglican. The term was applied to them in 
derision ; but the sterling character of those thus designated at 
length turned the epithet of reproach into a badge of honorable 
distinction. To these earnest reformers the Church Elizabeth 
had established seemed but half- reformed. Many rites and cere- 
monies, such as wearing the surplice and making the cross in 
baptism, had been retained ; and these things, in their eyes, 
appeared mere Popish superstitions. What they wanted was a 
more sweeping change, a form of worship more like that of the 
Calvinistic churches of Geneva, in which city very many of 
them had lived as exiles during the Marian persecution. They, 
however, did not withdraw from the Established Church, but 
remaining within its pale, labored to reform it, and to shape its 
doctrines and discipline to their notions. These Puritans were 
destined to play a prominent part in the later affairs of England. 
Under the Stuarts, as we shall see, they became strong enough to 
overturn State and Church, and remould both to suit their own 
ideas. 

The Separatists were still more zealous reformers than the Puri- 
tans : in their hatred of everything that bore any resemblance to 
the Roman worship, they flung away the surplice and the Prayer- 



428 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

book, severed all connection with the Established Church, and 
refused to have anything to do with it. They were known at first 
by different names, as Brownists or Barrowists, after prominent 
leaders, but later, as Independents. Under the Act of Uniformity 
they were persecuted with great severity, so that multitudes w^ere 
led to seek an asylum upon the continent. It was from among 
these exiles gathered in Holland that a little later came the pas- 
sengers of the Mayflower and Speedwell, — the Pilgrim Fathers, 
who laid the foundations of civil and religious liberty in the New 
World. 

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. — A large part of the history of 
Elizabeth's reign is intertwined with the story of her cousin, Mary 
Stuart, Queen of Scots, the " Modern Helen," " the most beau- 
tiful, the weakest, the most attractive, and most attracted of 
women." She was the daughter of James V. of Scotland, and 
to her in right of birth — according to all Catholics who denied 
the validity of Henry's marriage with Anne of Boleyn — belonged 
the English crown next after Mary Tudor. While yet a child, she 
was married to the Dauphin of France, son of Henry II. By the 
death of his father in 1559, the Dauphin came to the French 
throne with the title of Francis II. The young couple now added 
to their title of " King and Queen of France and Scotland " that 
of " King and Queen of England," by which act they naturally 
awakened the jealousy and resentment of Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth watched closely the movements of these royal claim- 
ants of her crown, who very soon had a French army in Scotland 
to aid the Catholic party there in crushing the Reformation, which 
was at this time making rapid progress in that country, under the 
powerful preaching of the famous John Knox. Elizabeth very 
well understood that her own cause was bound up with that of the 
Protestants of Scotland, and accordingly she aided them with an 
English fleet and army. The result was the triumph of the re- 
formers and the establishment of the Presbyterian form of worship 
throughout Scotland. The French withdrew from the country, 
Mary and Francis promising to renounce all claim to the crown of 
England. 



MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS. 429 

Matters were barely thus arranged, when the death of Francis 
left Mary a widow. Upon invitation of her Scottish subjects she 
now returned to her native land, where she was warmly welcomed 
by the Scottish lords. Mary was now in her nineteenth year. 
The subtle charm of her beauty seems to have bewitched all 
who came into her presence — save the more zealous of the 
reformers, who could never forget that their young sovereign was 
a Catholic. The exercise of the Roman service in her private 
chapel caused the people to exclaim against her as an idolater. 
The stern old Knox made her life miserable by denouncing to her 
face her idolatrous worship and her worldly amusements. He 
was a veritable Elijah, in whose eyes Mary appeared a modern 
Jezebel. He called her a " Moabite," and the " Harlot of 
Babylon," till she wept from sheer vexation. She dared not 
punish the impudent preacher, for she knew too well the strength 
of the Protestant feeling among her subjects. 

Other things now conspired with Mary's hated religion to 
alienate entirely the love of her people. In 1565 she married 
her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, whom she soon gave 
occasion to become jealous of one of her secretaries, an Italian 
named Rizzio. This favorite was assassinated by Darnley, who 
with some friends entered the Queen's apartments and dispatched 
him before her eyes. Mary swore that the insult and crime should 
be avenged. Within a year from the time of the murder, a house 
in which Darnley was sleeping was blown to pieces with gun- 
powder. The Queen was suspected of having some knowledge of 
the affair. This suspicion was confirmed when, very soon after 
the event, Mary married the Earl of Bothwell, a man whom rumor 
had denounced as the actual murderer of Darnley. The indigna- 
tion of the people now broke forth in open revolt. Bothwell fled 
the country, while Mary was shut up a prisoner in Lochleven 
Castle, and forced to abdicate the crown in favor of her infant son 
James. 

Mary escaped from her prison, made an unsuccessful attempt 
to rally her subjects to her standard, and then sought an asylum in 



430 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

England (1568). Here she threw herself upon the generosity of 
her cousin Elizabeth, and entreated aid in recovering her throne. 
But the part which she was generally believed to have had in the 
murder of her husband, her disturbing claims to the English 
throne, and the fact that she was a Catholic, all conspired to de- 
termine her fate. She was placed in confinement, and for nine- 
teen years remained a prisoner. During all this time Mary was 
the centre of innumerable plots and conspiracies on the part of 
the Catholics, which aimed at setting her upon the English throne. 
The Pope aided these conspirators by a bull excommunicating 
Elizabeth and denying her right to the crown she wore, and releas- 
ing her subjects from their allegiance. 

Events just now occurring on the continent tended to inflame 
the Protestants of England with a deadly hatred against Mary and 
all her Catholic friends and abettors. In 1572 the Huguenots of 
France were slaughtered on St. Bartholomew's Day. In 1584 the 
Prince of Orange fell at the hands of a hired assassin. That there 
were daggers waiting to take the life of Elizabeth was well known. 
It was evident that so long as Mary lived the Queen's life was in 
constant danger. In the feverish state of the public mind, it was 
natural that the air should be filled with rumors of plots of every 
kind. Finally, a carefully-laid conspiracy to assassinate Elizabeth, 
and place Mary on the throne, was unearthed. Mary was tried for 
complicity in the plot, was declared guilty, and, after some hesita- 
tion, feigned or otherwise, on the part of Elizabeth, was ordered 
to the block. She received her sentence with perfect composure. 
To her executioner she said, " I pardon you, after the example of 
my Redeemer." Two blows severed her head from the body, and 
the executioner, holding it up before the people, cried out, " So 
perish the enemies of our Queen " (1587). 

Respecting no other act of Elizabeth have so many and diverse 
opinions been rendered as upon her treatment of her sister sov- 
ereign and cousin, the Queen of Scots. But while our sympathies 
may be enlisted in behalf of the unfortunate victim, our judgment 
must pronounce her execution necessary not only to the stability 



THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. » 431 

of Elizabeth's government, but to the security of the Protestant 
cause. 

The Invincible Armada. — The execution of Mary Stuart led 
immediately to the memorable attempt against England by the 
Spanish Armada. Before her death the Queen of Scots had 
bequeathed to Philip II. of Spain her claims to the English 
crown. To enforce these rights, to avenge the death of Mary, 
to punish Elizabeth for rendering aid to his rebellious subjects 
in the Netherlands, and to deal a fatal blow to the Reformation 
in Europe by crushing the Protestants of England, Philip resolved 
upon making a tremendous effort for the conquest of the heretical 
and troublesome island. Vast preparations were made for carrying 
out the project. Great fleets were gathered in the harbors of Spain, 
and a large army was assembled in the Netherlands to cooperate 
with the naval armament. The Pope, Sixtus V., blessed the enter- 
prise, which was thus rendered a sort of crusade. 

These threatening preparations produced a perfect fever of 
excitement in England ; for we must bear in mind that the 
Spanish king was at this time the most powerful potentate in 
Europe, commanding the resources of a large part of two worlds. 
Never did Roman citizens rise more 'splendidly to avert some 
terrible peril threatening the Republic than the English people 
now arose as a single man to defend their island-realm against 
the revengeful and ambitious project of Spain. The imminent 
danger served to unite all classes, the gentry and the yeomanry, 
Protestants and Catholics. The latter might intrigue to set a 
Mary Stuart on the English throne, but they were not ready to 
betray their land into the hands of the hated Spaniards. " In that 
memorable year," says Hallam, in a passage where his usually 
coldly judicial phrases flame into eloquence, " when the dark cloud 
gathered around our coasts, when Europe stood by in fearful sus- 
pense to behold what should be the result of that great cast in the 
game of human politics, what the craft of Rome, the power of 
Philip, the genius of Farnese, could achieve against the island- 
queen with her Drakes and Cecils — in that agony of the Prot- 



432 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

estant faith and English name, they stood the trial of their spirit 
without swerving from their allegiance. It was then that the 
Catholics in every county repaired to the standard of the lord- 
lieutenant, imploring that they might not be suspected of barter- 
ing the national independence for their religion itself." 

Elizabeth was not content with preparations for mere defense. 
She sent her best admiral, Sir Francis Drake, to desolate the 
Spanish coast. That bold sailor succeeded in inflicting great 
damage upon Philip's fleet, and in burning enormous quantities 
of military stores intended for the expedition of invasion. In his 
own words, he " singed the beard of the Spanish king." 

It was not until the year after Drake's enterprise that Philip's 
preparations were completed. His fleet, consisting of 130 ships, 
the largest naval armament that had ever appeared upon the 
Atlantic, and boastfully called the " Invincible Armada," then set 
sail from Lisbon for the Channel, intending to touch at Dunkirk, 
for the purpose of conveying across the strait the Spanish troops 
under the Duke of Parma, collected in the Netherlands. 

July 19, 1587, the Armada was first descried by the watchmen 
on the English cliffs. It swept up the Channel in the form of a 
great crescent, seven miles in width from tip to tip of horn. The 
English ships, whose light structure and swift movements gave 
them a decided advantage over the great unwieldy Spanish 
galleons, almost immediately began to obstruct their advance, 
and for seven days incessantly harassed the Armada. One night, 
as the damaged fleet lay off the harbor of Calais, the English sent 
fire-ships among the vessels, whereby a number were destroyed, 
and a panic created among the others. A determined attack the 
next day by Drake, Howard, and Lord Henry Seymour inflicted 
a still severer loss upon the fleet. The Spaniards, thinking now 
of nothing save escape, spread their sails in flight, proposing to 
get away by sailing northward around the British Isles. But the 
storms of the northern seas dashed many of the remaining ships 
to pieces on the Scottish or Irish shores. Barely one third of the 
ships of the Armada ever re-entered the harbors whence they 



MARITIME AND COLONIAL ENTERPRISES. 433 

sailed. When intelligence of the woful disaster was carried to 
Philip, he simply said, " God's will be done ; I sent my fleet to 
fight with the English, not with the elements." 

The destruction of the Invincible Armada was not only a 
terrible blow to Spanish pride, but an equally heavy blow to 
Spanish supremacy among the states of Europe. From this time 
on, Spain's prestige and power rapidly declined. 

As to England, she had been delivered from a great peril ; and 
as to the cause of Protestantism, it was now safe. 

Maritime and Colonial Enterprises. — The crippling of the 
naval power of Spain left England mistress of the seas. The 
little island-realm now entered upon the most splendid period 
of her history. The old Norse blood of her people, stirred by 
recent events, seemed to burn with a feverish impatience for 
maritime adventure and glory. Many a story of the daring 
exploits of English sea-rovers during the reign of Elizabeth seems 
like a repetition of some tale of the old Vikings. 

Among all these sea-rovers, half explorer, half pirate, Sir Francis 
Drake (1545-1595) was pre-eminent. Before the Armada days 
he had sailed around the globe (15 77-15 79), and for the achieve- 
ment had been knighted by Queen Elizabeth. 

The whole life of this sixteenth century Viking was spent in 
fighting the fleets of his sovereign's enemy, Philip II. , in capturing 
Spanish treasure-vessels on the high sea, and in pillaging the ware- 
houses and settlements on every Spanish shore in the Old World 
and in the New. The hostile relations of England and Spain 
during almost the whole of Elizabeth's reign enabled the bold 
buccaneer to commit all his robberies and atrocities as a priva- 
teersman of the Queen. 

One of the favorite enterprises of the English navigators of this 
period was the search for a northwest passage to the East Indies. 
While hunting for this amidst the ice-floes of the Arctic seas, Fro- 
bisher and Davis discovered the straits which bear their respec- 
tive names. 

Especially deserving of mention among the enterprises of these 



434 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OE THE REFORMATION. 

stirring and romantic times are the undertakings and adventures 
of Sir Walter Raleigh (i 552-161 8). Several expeditions were 
sent out by him for the purpose of making explorations, and 
forming settlements in the New World. One of these, which 
explored the central coasts of North America, returned with such 
glowing accounts of the beauty and richness of the lands visited, 
that, in honor of the Virgin Queen, it was named " Virginia." 

Raleigh attempted to establish a colony in the new land, but 
the settlement was unsuccessful. The colonists, however, when 
they returned home, carried back with them the tobacco-plant, 
then unknown in the Old World. It was about this time also that 
the potato, a native product of the New World, was introduced 
into Europe. 

The Queen's Death. — The closing days of Elizabeth's reign 
were, to her personally, dark and gloomy. She seemed to be 
burdened with a secret grief, 1 as well as by the growing infirmities 
of age. She fell at last into a state of profound melancholy. For 
ten days together she refused food of any kind. Being asked who 
her successor should be, she is said to have answered curtly, " No 
rascal, but a King," by which she meant her cousin, James VI. of 
Scotland. She died March 24, 1603, in the seventieth year of her 
age, and the forty-fifth of her reign. Thus ended the life of the 
Virgin Queen, " a life so great, so strange and lonely in its great- 
ness." With her ended the Tudor line of English sovereigns. 

Literature of the Elizabethan Era. 

Influences Favorable to Literature. — The years covered by 
the reign of Elizabeth constitute the most momentous period 
in history. It was the age when Europe was most deeply stirred 
by the Reformation. It was, too, a period of marvelous physi- 
cal and intellectual expansion and growth. The discoveries of 

1 In 1 601 she sent to the block her chief favorite, the Earl of Essex, who had 
been found guilty of treason. She wished to spare him, and probably would 
have done so, had a token which he sent her from his prison reached her. 
Read the story as told in all the histories of England. 



INFLUENCES FAVORABLE TO LITERATURE. 435 

( 'olumbus and Copernicus had created, as Froude affirms, " not 
in any metaphor, but in plain and literal speech, a new heaven 
and a new earth." The New Learning had, at the same time, dis- 
covered the old world, — had revealed an unsuspected treasure in 
the philosophies and literatures of the past. 

Thus everything — the reformation of religion and the en- 
franchisement of thought, the wonders of the suddenly expanded 
heavens, the mystery of new lands and the knowledge of strange 
races of men, the restoration of the lost arts, and the opening of 
the long-closed libraries of the ancients — conspired to quicken 
men's intellect and stimulate their imagination. They felt again 
that same novelty and freshness of life and nature which so 
excited the Greek fancy in the world's childhood. 

No people of Europe felt more deeply the stir, and movement 
of the times, nor helped more to create this same stir and move- 
ment, than the English nation. There seemed to be nothing too 
great or arduous for them to undertake. They made good their 
resistance to the Roman See ; they humbled the pride of the 
strongest monarch in Christendom ; they sailed round the globe, 
and penetrated all its seas. 

An age of such activity and achievement almost of necessity 
gives birth to a strong and vigorous literature. And thus is ex- 
plained, in part at least, how the English people during this period 
should have developed a literature of such originality and richness 
and strength as to make it the prized inheritance of all the 
world. " The great writers who shine in the literary splendor 
of the Elizabethan age," Shaw asserts, " were the natural product 
of the newly awakened, thoughtful English nation of that clay." 
And Fisher, emphasizing the effects of the Reformation, writes as 
follows : " That Protestantism was a life-giving element in the 
atmosphere in which the eminent authors of that [the age of Eliza- 
beth] and of the following ages drew their inspiration, admits of 
no reasonable doubt. We have only to imagine that the reign of 
Mary and her religious system had continued through the sixteenth 
century, and we shall appreciate the indispensable part which 
Protestantism took in the creation of that great literary epoch." 



436 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF REFORMATION. 

The Writers. — To make special mention of all the great writers 
who adorned the Elizabethan era would carry us quite beyond the 
limits of our book. Having said something of the influence under 
which they wrote, we will simply add that this age was the age of 
Shakespeare and Spenser and Bacon. 1 

1 William Shakespeare (1564-1616) ; Edmund Spenser 0552?-i599) ; 
Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Shakespeare and Bacon, it will be noticed, out- 
lived Elizabeth. 

Two other names hold a less prominent place, — that of Sir Philip Sidney 
( 1 554-1 586), the courtly knight, who wrote the Arcadia, a sort of pastoral 
romance, and A Defence of Poesy, a work intended to counteract the Puritan- 
ical spirit then rising; and that of Richard Hooker (1 553-1 600), who, in his 
Ecclesiastical Polity, by relying in his argument upon reason rather than 
upon authority, did much to promote the cause of religious toleration. For 
once establish the principle that a man's belief should be determined by his 
own reason, and the conclusion is unavoidable that it is unreasonable to pun- 
ish him for the opinions to which he may thus be led. The tendency of the 
book, though such was not its special aim, was to help quench the fires of 
persecution. "Seventeen years after the publication of the great work of 
Hooker, two men were publicly burned by the English bishops, for holding 
heretical opinions. But this was the last gasp of expiring bigotry ; and since 
that memorable day [in 161 1] the soil of England has never been stained by 
the blood of a man who has suffered for his religious creed." — BUCKLE, 
History of Civilization in England, Vol. I. p. 249. 



THE PEOPLE: CELT AND GERMAN. 437 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS : RISE OF THE DUTCH 
REPUBLIC (i 572-1 609). 

The Country. — The term Netherlands (low-lands) was for- 
merly applied to all that low, marshy district in the northwest of 
Europe, sunk much of it below the level of the sea, now occupied 
by the kingdoms of Holland and Belgium. The entire strip of 
land is simply the delta accumulations of the Rhine and other 
rivers emptying into the North Sea. Originally it was often over- 
flowed by its streams and inundated by the ocean. 

But this unpromising morass, protected at last by heavy dykes 
seaward against the invasions of the ocean, and by great embank- 
ments inland against the overflow of its streams, 1 was destined to 
become the site of the richest and most potent cities of Europe, 
and the seat of one of the foremost commonwealths of modern 
times. 

The People : Celt and German. — Much light is thrown upon 
the history of the Netherlands, by our keeping in mind the differ- 
ence in race between the original population of the northern and 
that of the southern provinces of the country. 2 

When the Romans first came in contact with the inhabitants of 
this region, the southern portion of the land was held by Celtic 
tribes, known as the Belgoe, while the northern part was the home 

1 "Though upwards of fifteen hundred millions of dollars have been spent 
in constructing these gigantic bulwarks, it requires more than two millions 
yearly to maintain them." — Young's History of the Netherlands, p. 12. 

2 Motley's The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Vol. I. pp. 4-1 1. 



438 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OE THE REFORMATION. 

of German clans, chief among which were the Frisians and Batavi- 
ans. These races, kept apart by difference in language and tem- 
perament, unfortunately were never fused into a single people ; 
and when, finally, in the sixteenth century, there came a crisis 
in the life of the European nations, and they were each called 
upon to choose between the Old Church and the New, between 
unworthy subjection and freedom, the northern and southern 
Netherlanders made different choices, and went divergent ways. 
In the contrasted histories of the predominantly Gallic South and 
the predominantly German North, — the former represented 
to-day by the Catholic kingdom of Belgium and the latter by the 
Protestant kingdom of Holland, — we shall learn how potent are 
race influences in shaping the destinies of a people. 

The Netherlands under the Dukes of Burgundy. — During a 
large part of the Middle Ages the Netherlands were divided into a 
number of petty feudal principalities, chief among which were 
Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zealand. The different heads of 
these little sovereignties were the nominal vassals either of the 
German Emperors or the kings of France. 

Late in the fourteenth century Flanders came into the possession 
of the ducal house of Burgundy, and during the course of the fol- 
lowing century, by marriage, bequest, purchase, and usurpation, all 
the other provinces were brought under the control of this power- 
ful family. The famous Charles the Bold (146 7-147 7), the last 
duke of Burgundy, whose ambition it was to convert the mixed 
assemblage of loosely-knit provinces over which he ruled into a 
great kingdom that should embrace all the lands lying between 
Switzerland and the North Sea, was slain in battle with the Confed- 
erates, or Swiss, and his possessions were scattered. The Nether- 
lands fell to his daughter Mary, whose marriage with Maximilian, 
Archduke of Austria, transferred them to the House of Hapsburg, 
and brought them finally into the possession of the grandson of 
Mary, the Emperor Charles V. 

State of the Country at the Opening of the Modern Age. 
— No country in Europe made greater progress in civilization 



THE LOW COUNTRIES UNDER CHARLES V. 439 

during the mediaeval era than the Netherlands. At the opening 
of the sixteenth century they contained a crowded and busy popu- 
lation of 3,000,000 souls. The ancient marshes had been trans- 
formed into carefully kept gardens and orchards. The walled 
cities numbered between two and three hundred, while thriving 
towns and villages were counted by the thousand. Innumerable 
villas of the lords and merchant princes lent to the entire country 
the appearance of the environs of a great metropolis. A belt of 
strong fortresses formed a protecting girdle about the land. 

The great cities that dotted the country — such as Ghent, Dort, 
Bruges, Mechlin, Haarlem, Delft, Leyden, Amsterdam, Brussels, 
Antwerp, and Rotterdam — depended chiefly for their wealth and 
power upon their manufactures and commerce, the carrying trade 
of Northern Europe being largely in the hands of the bold and 
skilful Netherland sailors. It is said that between two and three 
hundred vessels entered the port of Antwerp daily. Bruges, of 
which we have had occasion to speak before as being the half-way 
station of the trade between the Italian and Hanse cities, was, as 
early as the thirteenth century, one of the leading cities in Europe. 

While the Netherland cities were growing in wealth, they were 
of course growing in influence and power, and by the sword or 
with gold won from their feudal lords, from time to time, charters 
conferring valuable rights and privileges, which instruments were 
carefully preserved as the palladia of their municipal liberties. 
The chief cities of the Low Countries, when these lands became 
the possession of Charles V., were in reality city-republics. 
They regulated all their own local affairs, chose their own magis- 
trates, and sent their representatives to the general assembly of 
the provinces. We shall in the following pages see how the Span- 
ish sovereigns respected the rights and privileges of these cities 
over which destiny had called them to rule. 

The Low Countries under Charles V. (15 15-1555). — The 
Netherlands, it will be recalled, were part of those possessions 
over which Charles V. ruled by hereditary right. The character 
of his government in these provinces is well illustrated by his 



440 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

treatment of Ghent. This was one of the first cities of the Low 
Countries : its walls were nine miles in circuit ; its population 
approached a quarter of a million. 

The city incurred the displeasure of Charles in the following 
way : The Emperor having demanded a large subsidy from the 
Netherlands, the citizens of Ghent dared to refuse payment of 
their allotted portion of it, claiming that by their charter they 
could be taxed only by their own vote. Charles resolved to make 
an example of the rebellious city. By the courtesy of Francis I. 
he was enabled to reach the Netherlands by a quick journey from 
Spain directly through France ; and at the head of a large army 
he entered without resistance the gates of the capital. Nineteen 
of the leaders of the movement were beheaded ; all the public 
buildings and property belonging to the city as a corporation were 
confiscated ; all its charters and privileges were annulled ; the tax 
resisted was to be paid immediately, and with it an enormous fine ; 
the right of self-government was taken from the city, and all its 
magistrates were henceforth to be appointed by the Spanish sov- 
ereign ; and then the crowning indignity was reached when the 
Imperial decree demanded that a certain number of the chief men 
of the city should appear before Charles " with halters about their 
necks," and upon their knees make humble confession of their 
treason and guilt. 

The burghers were obliged to undergo this last humiliation, and 
to receive Charles's forgiveness for having presumed to maintain 
their time-honored liberties. Thus were the cities of the Nether- 
lands taught how far it would be safe for them to go in exercising 
their municipal independence. The spirit of liberty was over- 
awed. Despotism had succeeded in putting halters about the 
necks of others than the chief burghers of Ghent. But the Neth- 
erlander were not the men to wear halters very long or very 
patiently. 

Charles was quite as much opposed to his Flemish subjects 
claiming privileges in religious matters as in civil affairs. He saw 
that the principles of the Reformation were directly opposed to 



"LONG LIVE THE BEGGARS." 441 

his schemes of despotic government ; and, though he could not 
control the movement in Germany, he resolved to root out the 
heresy from his hereditary possessions of the Netherlands. By 
an Imperial edict he condemned to death all persons presuming 
to read the Scriptures, or even to discuss religious topics. The 
Inquisition was introduced, and thousands perished at the stake 
and upon the scaffold, or were strangled, or buried alive. 1 But 
when Charles retired to the monastery at Yuste, the reformed doc- 
trines were, notwithstanding all his efforts, far more widely spread 
and deeply rooted in the Netherlands than when he entered upon 
their extirpation by fire and sword. 

Accession of Philip II. — In 1555, in the presence of an august 
and princely assembly at Brussels, and amidst the most imposing 
and dramatic ceremonies, Charles V. abdicated the crown whose 
weight he could no longer bear, and placed the same upon the 
head of his son Philip. Unfortunately that son, as we have 
already learned, was a despot by nature. He was a cold, schem- 
ing man, an " ideal bigot and fanatic." 

Philip remained in the Netherlands after his coronation four 
years, employing much of his time in devising means to root out 
the heresy of Protestantism. In 1559 he set sail for Spain, never 
to return. His arrival in the peninsula was celebrated by an 
auto-da-fe at Valladolid, festivities consisting in the burning of 
thirteen persons whom the officers of the Inquisition had con- 
demned as heretics. As one of the victims — a young man of 
noble birth — was passing to the stake, he demanded of the king, 
"How can you thus look on and permit me to be burned?" to 
which Philip replied, " I would carry the wood to burn my own 
son, were he as wicked as you." 

"Long Live the Beggars." — Upon his departure from the,-/; 
Netherlands Philip entrusted their government to his half-sister 
Margaret, Duchess of Parma, as Regent. 

1 The number of victims of Charles's persecution has been placed as high 
as 100,000; but this is doubtless an exaggeration. Consult Fisher, History of 
the Reformation, p. 289. 



442 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 
• 

Under the administration of Margaret (1559-156 7) the perse- 
cution of the Protestants went on with renewed bitterness. Philip 
declared that "he would rather lose a hundred thousand lives, 
were they all his own, than allow the smallest deviation from the 
standards of the Roman Catholic Church." Thousands fled the 
country, many of the fugitives finding a home in England., At 
last the nobles leagued together for the purpose of resisting the 
Inquisition. They demanded of the Regent a redress of griev- 
ances. When the petition was presented to the Duchess, she dis- 
played great agitation, whereupon one of her councilors exclaimed, 
" Madam, are you afraid of a pack of beggars? " 

The expression was carried to the nobles, who were assembled 
at a banquet. Immediately one of their number, the impetuous 
Count Brederode, suspended a beggar's wallet from his neck, and 
filling a wooden bowl with wine, proposed the toast, " Long live 
the Beggars." The name was tumultuously adopted, and became 
the party designation of the patriot Netherlander during their 
long struggle with the Spanish power. 

The Iconoclasts (1566). — Affairs now rapidly verged towards 
violence and open revolt. The only reply of the government to 
the petition of the nobles was a decree termed the Moderation, 
which substituted hanging for burning in the case of condemned 
heretics. The Netherlanders very properly rechristened the 
farcical edict the " Murderation." 

The pent-up indignation of the people at length burst forth in 
an uncontrollable fury. They gathered in great mobs, and arming 
themselves with whatever implements they could first seize, pro- 
ceeded to demolish every image they could find in the churches 
throughout the country. The rage of the insurgents was turned 
in this direction, because in their eyes these churches represented 
the hated Inquisition under which they were suffering. Scarcely 
a church in all the Netherlands escaped. The images with which 
chapel and cathedral had become crowded were broken to pieces 
on the floor of the sacred edifices, or were dragged through the 
streets amidst the execrations of the multitude. The monasteries, 



THE DUKE OE ALVA AXD THE Jil.OOD COUNCIL. -H3 

too, were sacked, their libraries burned, and the inmates driven 
from their cloisters. 

The number of churches stripped and despoiled by this icono- 
clastic outbreak cannot be stated. It was certainly very large. 
In the province of Flanders alone there were four hundred sacred 
buildings visited by the mob, and sacked. The tempest destroyed 
innumerable art treasures, which have been as sincerely mourned 
by the lovers of the beautiful as the burned rolls of the Alexan- 
drian Library have been lamented by the lovers of learning. 

These image-breaking riots drove Margaret wild with terror, 
and threw Philip into a perfect transport of rage. He tore his 
beard, and exclaimed, " It shall cost them dear ! I swear it by 
the soul of my father ! " 

For a moment, however, the reformers seemed to have secured 
their purpose. Under the stress of her fears Margaret signed an 
agreement with the nobles, abolishing the Inquisition, and accord- 
ing liberty of worship to all throughout the Netherlands. But the 
triumph of the people was short. The plotter in the Escurial 
was preparing to make good the vow which he had sworn by the 
soul of his father. 

The Duke of Alva and the Blood Council. — The year follow- 
ing the outbreak of the Iconoclasts, Philip sent to the Netherlands 
a veteran Spanish army, headed by the Duke of Alva, a man after 
Philip's own heart, cruel, tyrannical, and unscrupulous. He was 
one of the ablest generals of the age ; and the intelligence of his 
coming threw the provinces into a state of the greatest agitation 
and alarm. Those who could do so hastened to get out of the 
country. William the Silent, Prince of Orange, fled to German}-, 
where he began to gather an army of volunteers for the struggle 
which he now saw to be inevitable. Egmont and Horn, noble- 
men of high rank and great distinction, were seized, cast into 
prison, and afterwards beheaded (1568). The Duchess was 
relieved of the government, which was committed to the firmer 
hands of Alva, who to aid him in the management of affairs 
organized a most iniquitous tribunal, known in history as the 
" Council of Blood." 



444 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

The Inquisition was now re-established, and a perfect reign of 
terror began. A decree was issued by the inquisitors, and con- 
firmed by Philip, which condemned to death almost every person 
— man, woman, and child — in the Netherlands. The number of 
Alva's victims might almost persuade us that he purposed to 
execute literally the insane edict. 

William of Orange. — The eyes of all Netherlanders were now 
turned to the Prince of Orange as their only deliverer. The 
Prince, on his part, believed himself called of Heaven to the work 
of rescuing his country from Spanish tyranny. Towards the close 
of the year 1568, he marched from Germany against Alva, at the 
head of an army of 30,000 men, which he had raised and equipped 
principally at his own expense. 

The war was now fully joined. Never was there a more des- 
perate struggle. Never did any people make a more heroic 
defense of their religious and civil liberties than did the Nether- 
landers. The struggle lasted for more than a generation, — for 
thirty-seven years. The Spanish armies were commanded succes- 
sively by the most experienced and distinguished generals of 
Europe, — the Duke of Alva, Don John of Austria (the con- 
queror of the Moors and the hero of the great naval fight of 
Lepanto), and the Duke of Parma; but the Prince of Orange 
coped ably with them all, and in the masterly service which he 
rendered his country, thus terribly assaulted, earned the title of 
" the Founder of Dutch Liberties." 

Isolation of the Provinces. — The Netherlanders sustained the 
unequal contest almost single-handed ; for, though they found 
much sympathy among the Protestants of Germany, France, and 
England, they never received material assistance from any of these 
countries, excepting England, and it was not until late in the strug- 
gle that aid came from this source. Elizabeth did, indeed, at first 
furnish the patriots with secret aid, and opened the ports of Eng- 
land to the " Beggars of the Sea " ; but after a time the fear of 
involving herself in a war with Philip led her to withhold for a long 
period all contributions and favors. As regards the German states. 



THE SIEGE AND SACK OF HAARLEM. 145 

they were too much divided among themselves to render effi- 
cient aid ; and just at the moment when the growing Protestant 
sentiment in France encouraged the Netherlander to look for 
help from the Huguenot party there, the awful massacre of St. 
Bartholomew extinguished forever all hope of succor from that 
quarter. 

So the little revolted provinces were left to carry on unaided, as 
best they might, a contest with the most powerful monarch of 
Christendom. 

The details of this memorable struggle we must, of course, leave 
unnoticed. Of the sack of Haarlem and the relief of Leyden we 
will, however, speak very briefly, in order to illustrate the ferocity 
and stubbornness with which the war was waged and maintained. 

The Siege and Sack of Haarlem (15 72-15 73). — Haarlem was 
one of the largest cities of the Netherlands. It stood upon a nar- 
row neck of land, only ten miles from Amsterdam. The siege of 
this place by the Spaniards was one of the most memorable inci- 
dents of the war. Among its defenders was a body of three hun- 
dred women, who fought on the walls and before the gates of the 
city with a fierceness which made real the tales of the Amazons. 
Sortie and assault followed each other in uninterrupted succession 
during all the winter of 1572-73. Prisoners were slaughtered on 
both sides simply to give point to a jest. 1 

Finally, after the winter and spring had been consumed in the 
operations of the siege, the city was forced to surrender. Not- 
withstanding that the citizens had been promised their lives, a 
horrible massacre began immediately upon the entrance of the 

1 A relief party being scattered and its leader taken prisoner, " the Span- 
iards cut off his head and threw it over the walls into the city, with this in- 
scription : * This is the head of Captain de Koning, who is on his way with 
re-inforcements for the good city of Haarlem.' The citizens retorted with a 
practical jest, which was still more barbarous. They cut off the heads of 
eleven prisoners, and put them in a barrel, which they threw into the Spanish 
camp. A label upon the barrel contained these words: 'Deliver these ten 
heads to Duke Alva in payment of his tenpenny tax, with one additional head 
for interest,' " — Motley's The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Vol. II. p. 435. 



446 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

Spanish soldiers within the walls of the place, which lasted until 
more than two thousand of the inhabitants had been murdered. 

When intelligence of the fall of Haarlem and the butchery of its 
citizens was carried to Philip, it so happened that he was suffering 
from a dangerous sickness ; but the news, it is said, acted like a 
tonic, and the monarch began at once to amend. 

The disaster was a heavy blow to the hopes of the Nether- 
landers ; the undaunted spirit of the Prince of Orange alone kept 
them from sinking into utter despondency. 

The Siege and Relief of Leyden (15 73-15 74). — Alva had suc- 
ceeded in reducing Haarlem, but the stubborn resistance which 
he there met had convinced him that the Netherlanders could 
not be subdued by force ; and this conviction, together with the 
consciousness that he was abhorred by the people whom he pre- 
tended to rule, led him to ask Philip to relieve him of the govern- 
ment of the provinces. Requesens, a man just the opposite in 
disposition of Alva, was appointed in his place (1573). The war 
was still to be carried on, but more moderate and conciliatory 
measures were to be adopted. 

The most important event that characterized the short adminis- 
tration of Requesens was the siege of Leyden. The tale of the 
heroic defense and relief of this place, as told by the historian 
Motley, is one of the classics of historical narrations. 

The beautiful city of Leyden was situated in the midst of a 
broad and level expanse of orchards and gardens. The siege of 
the place was begun by Alva, and, after a short interruption, con- 
tinued by Requesens. 

The Prince of Orange was untiring in his efforts to throw relief 
into the beleaguered city, and by repeated messages encouraged 
the inhabitants to a brave resistance. He entreated them not to 
forget that " they were not to contend for themselves alone ; but 
that the fate of their countrymen and of unborn generations would, 
in all human probability, depend on the issue about to be tried. 
Eternal glory would be their portion if they manifested a courage 
worthy of their race, and of the sacred cause of religion and 
liberty." 



THE SIEGE AND RELIEF OF LEYDEN. 4-17 

In the month of June provisions began to fail the besieged. 
The Prince, despairing of getting relief to the city in any other 
way, resolved to cut the dykes, and let the sea in upon the land. 
The gardens and villages of the open country would of course be 
ruined ; but the floods would force the Spaniards to raise the siege, 
or at least would enable relief-ships to approach the starving city. 

The resolve was straightway executed. The dykes were cut, 
and the waters of the ocean rushed over the land. A relief-fleet, 
manned by veteran sailors, fierce "Beggars of the Sea," now ad- 
vanced without difficulty to within five miles of Leyden, where it 
was stopped by a vast dyke, the outermost of a series of ramparts 
drawn about the city in concentric circles, to protect it in case the 
ocean should break through the great sea-wall. 

The rescuing party cleared one after another of these dykes of 
its Spanish defenders, then leveled the rampart, and, as the waters 
rushed through the breach, guided their ships through the gap, and 
pushed them on over the submerged fields. As they advanced, 
the waters finally became too shallow to float the vessels of the 
fleet, and it seemed as though all hope of carrying the ocean to 
the city must be abandoned. But the winds were propitious. 
They rose and blew strongly from the north, and the waves were 
driven heavily upon the shore and on through the broken dykes. 
But scarcely were the vessels lifted up by the rising tide, before 
the winds suddenly changed, and again the fleet was stranded. 

Within the city the starving inhabitants were alternating between 
hope and fear. Food had entirely failed. The streets were filled 
with the dead and dying. A crowd of despairing wretches sur- 
rounded the burgomaster, and entreated him to secure them relief 
by surrendering to the Spaniards. The reply of the inflexible old 
magistrate is memorable. " Here is my sword," said he ; "plunge 
it into my breast, and divide my flesh among you ; but expect no 
surrender so long as I remain alive." These stout words reani- 
mated the discouraged people, and they vowed to defend their 
city and their liberties as long as life should last. 

Once more the winds came to the rescue of the famishing city. 



448 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

The waters rose and lifted the stranded ships. The remaining 
dykes were cut, the Spaniards were forced to raise the siege, and 
the fleet at last entered the canals of the city, with bread for the 
eager and starving inhabitants. 

Mindful of the source whence deliverance had come, the entire 
remaining population of the place now proceeded to the Cathe- 
dral, and there, along with their rescuers, offered up fervent thanks- 
giving to Him who commands the winds and the waves. 

The citizens of Leyden, through their heroic defence of their 
city, had preserved not only their own freedom, but the liberties 
of their country ; and that country was now not slow to acknowl- 
edge its debt of gratitude. Besides conferring certain commercial 
privileges on the city, the states of Holland and Zealand made 
provision for the founding and endowment of a university within 
its limits. Thus came into being the University of Leyden, one of 
the most distinguished institutions of learning in Europe at the 
present day. /3"/6 

The Pacification of Ghent (1567). — Having now gained some 
idea of the nature of the struggle, we must hurry on to the issue 
of the matter. In so doing we shall pass unnoticed many sieges 
and battles, negotiations and treaties. 

Requesens died in 1576. His death was marked by a revolt of 
the Spanish soldiers, on account of their not receiving their pay, 
the costly war having drained Philip's treasury. The mutinous 
army marched through the land, pillaging city after city, and 
paying themselves with the spoils. The beautiful city of Antwerp 
was ruined. The horrible massacre of its inhabitants, and the 
fiendish atrocities committed by the frenzied soldiers, caused the 
awful outbreak to be called the " Spanish Fury." In this city 
alone " many more were massacred than in the St. Bartholomew 
at Paris. Almost as many living human beings were dashed 
out of existence now as there had been statues destroyed in the 
memorable image-breaking of Antwerp ten years before, an event 
which sent such a thrill of horror through the heart of Catholic 
Christendom." — Motley. 



THE UNION OF UTRECHT. 449 

The terrible state of affairs led to an alliance between Holland 
and Zealand and the other fifteen provinces of the Netherlands, 
known in history as the Pacification of Ghent (1576). The resist- 
ance to the Spanish crown had thus far been carried on without 
concerted action among the several states, the Prince of Orange 
having hitherto found it impossible to bring the different provinces 
to agree to any plan of general defense. But the awful experi- 
ences of the Spanish Fury taught the necessity of union, and led 
all the seventeen provinces solemnly to agree to unite in driving 
the Spaniards from the Netherlands, and in securing full liberty 
for all in matters of faith and worship. William of Orange, with 
the title of Stadtholder, was placed at the head of the union. It 
was mainly the strong Catholic sentiment in the Southern prov- 
inces that had prevented such a union and pacification long 
before. 

The Union of Utrecht (1579).— Upon the death of Requesens, 
Don John of Austria, the hero-victor of Lepanto, was appointed 
by Philip to the government of the revolted provinces. Before he 
could reach the Netherlands, however, William of Orange had 
succeeded in effecting the union of the provinces, and so unbroken 
now was the front which they presented in resistance to the Span- 
iards, that John was obliged to enter the country in disguise. But 
by treachery and dissimulation, the use of which means had been 
enjoined upon him by Philip, who told him to " promise every- 
thing but perform nothing," the Regent succeeded in getting pos- 
session of several fortresses and towns, and thus securing a base 
for operation. He had scarcely entered upon his plan for subju- 
gating the rebellious provinces, when, after a great victory gained 
over the revolutionary forces at Gemblour, he was carried off by a 
sudden illness (1578). In the death of John of Austria, Philip 
lost a general of great reputation and unbounded popularity ; but 
his place was immediately filled by another commander of even 
more distinguished ability, Prince Alexander of Parma (1578- 

i59 2 )- 
The war now went on with increased vigor, fortune, with many 



450 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

vacillations, inclining to the side of the Spaniards. Disaffection 
arose among the Netherlander, the outcome of which was the 
separation of the Northern and Southern provinces. The Prince 
of Orange, seeing the impossibility of uniting all the states, devoted 
his efforts to effecting a confederation of the Northern ones. His 
endeavors were fortunately crowned with success, and the seven 
Protestant states of the north, 1 the chief of which were Holland 
and Zealand, by the treaty of Utrecht (1579), were united in a 
permanent confederation, known as the Seven United Provinces 
of the Netherlands. In this league was laid the foundation of the 
Dutch Republic. 

Fortunate would it have been for the Netherlands, could all of 
the states at this time have been brought to act in concert. 
Under the leadership of the Prince of Orange, the seventeen prov- 
inces might have been consolidated into a powerful nation, that 
might now be reckoned among the great powers of Europe. How- 
ever, it was destined to be otherwise. The ten Catholic provinces 
of the South, although they continued their contest with Philip a 
little longer, ultimately submitted to Spanish tyranny, and left to 
their sister states of the North the labor and honor of carrying on 
the heroic struggle in behalf of civil and religious freedom. A 
portion of these recreant provinces were absorbed by France, 
while the remainder, after varied fortunes amidst the revolutions 
and dynastic changes of the European states, finally became the 
present kingdom of Belgium. With their history we shall have no 
further concern at present, but turn now to follow the fortunes of 
the rising republic of the North. 

The "Ban" and the "Apology." — William of Orange was, of 
course, the animating spirit of the confederacy formed by the 
treaty of Utrecht. In the eyes of Philip and his viceroys he 
appeared the sole obstacle in the way of the pacification of the 
provinces and their return to civil and ecclesiastical obedience. 
In vain had Philip sent against him the ablest and most distin- 

1 Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Gelderland, Groningen, Friesland, and Over- 
yssel. 



THE "BAJV" AND THE " APOLOGY:' 451 

guished commanders of the age ; in vain had he endeavored to 
detach him from the cause of his country by magnificent bribes of 
titles, offices, and fortune : " Not for lands nor for life, for wife 
nor for children," was the Prince's reply to these offers, "would I 
mix in my cup a single drop of the poison of treason." 

Philip now resolved to employ assassination for the removal of 
the invincible general and the incorruptible patriot. He pub- 
lished a ban against the Prince, declaring him an outlaw, and 
offering to any one who should kill him the pardon of all his sins, 
a title of nobility, and 25,000 gold crowns. 

The Prince responded to the infamous edict in a remarkable 
paper, entitled "The Apology of the Prince of Orange," — the 
most terrible arraignment of tyranny that was ever penned. He 
denied to Philip the title of King of the Netherlands, declaring 
that, by the ancient constitution of the provinces, he had no right 
to exercise any authority over them, save that of Duke or Count, 
and even this right he declared he had utterly forfeited by his vio- 
lation of the most sacred obligations, and by the unendurable 
oppression and wholesale murder of his subjects ; he laid bare all 
the hideous deformity of Philip's private and public life ; he 
" scorned and ridiculed the King's attempt to frighten him with a 
ban, inquiring if he supposed the rebel ignorant of the various 
bargains which had frequently been made before with cut-throats 
and poisoners to take away his life " ; and then he closed with an 
appeal to his countrymen, resigning himself to death or exile, if 
thereby he might secure their deliverance from the tyranny that 
oppressed them. "If you, my masters," said he, "judge that my 
absence or my death can serve you, behold me ready to obey. 
Command me — send me to the ends of the earth — I will obey." 1 
The "Apology" was scattered throughout Europe, and every- 
where produced a profound impression. The friends of the 
Prince, while admiring his boldness, were filled with alarm for his 
safety. Their apprehensions, as the issue shows, were not un- 
founded. 

1 Motley's The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Vol. III. p. 496. 



452 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

Assassination of the Prince of Orange. — " The Ban soon bore 
fruit." Upon the ioth day of July, 1584, after five previous 
unsuccessful attempts having been made upon his life, the Prince 
of Orange was fatally shot by an assassin named Balthasar Ge- 
rard. The heirs of the murderer received the reward which had 
been offered in the Ban, being enriched with the estates of the 
Prince, and honored by elevation to the ranks of the Spanish 
nobility. 

The character of William the Silent is one of the most admira- 
ble portrayed in all history. 1 His steadfast and unselfish devotion 
to the cause of his country deservedly won for him the love of all 
classes. His people fondly called him " Father William." " As 
long as he lived, he was the guiding star of a whole brave nation ; 
and when he died, the little children cried in the streets." 

Prince Maurice : Sir Philip Sidney. — Severe as was the blow 
sustained by the Dutch patriots in the death of the Prince of 
Orange, they did not lose heart, but continued the struggle with 
the most admirable courage and steadfastness. Prince Maurice, a 
mere youth of seventeen years, the second son of William, was 
chosen Stadtholder in his place, and he proved himself a worthy 
son of the great chief and patriot. 

The war now proceeded with unabated fury. The Southern 
provinces were, for the most part, in the hands of the Spaniards, 
while the revolutionists held control of the Northern states ; some 
of the cities and fortresses of these latter provinces, however, 
were in the possession of the Spaniards. 

Substantial aid from the English now came to the struggling 
Hollanders. Queen Elizabeth, alarmed by the murder of the 
Prince of Orange, — for she well knew that hired agents of the 
king of Spain watched likewise for her life, — openly espoused 

1 He was not, however, without faults. The most serious of these was his 
habit of dissimulation. Some charge to this the separation of the Northern 
and Southern provinces after the Pacification of Ghent. The Southern prov- 
inces would not trust the " double-dealer." For references to various writers 
on this point, consult Young's History of the Netherlands, p. 320. 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR: TREATY OF 1609. 453 

the cause of the Dutch. Among the English knights who led 
the British forces sent into the Netherlands was the gallant Sir 
Philip Sidney, the " Flower of chivalry." At the siege of Zut- 
phen (1586), through the generous loan of a portion of his armor 
to a companion officer, he exposed himself to a mortal wound. 
A little incident that occurred as he rode from the field, suffering from 
his terrible hurt, is always told as a memorial of the gentle knight. 
A cup of water having been brought him, he was about to lift it to 
his lips, when his hand was arrested by the longing glance of a 
wounded soldier who chanced at that moment to be carried past. 
"Give it to him," said the fainting knight; "his necessity is 
greater than mine." 

Progress of the War: Treaty of 1609. — The circle of war grew 
more and more extended. France as well as England became 
involved, both fighting against Philip, who was now laying 
claims to the crowns of both these countries. The struggle was 
maintained on land and on sea, in the Old World and in the New. 
The English fleet, under the noted Sir Fra ncis Drake , ravaged the 
Spanish settlements in Florida and the West Indies, and inter- 
cepted the treasure- ships of Philip returning from the mines of 
Mexico and Peru ; the Dutch fleet wrested from Spain many of 
her possessions in the East Indies and among the islands of the 
South Pacific ; while the combined naval armaments of the two 
countries destroyed a splendid Spanish fleet in the bay of Cadiz, 
and captured and sacked that important city. 

But it would be a story without end, to tell of the battles on 
land lost and won, of the naval combats between the hostile fleets 
fought on almost every sea beneath the skies. From the death of 
the Prince of Orange in 1584 to the truce of 1609, almost all 
Christendom was shaken with the tumult of war. Philip II. 
died in 1598, but the contest was carried on by his successor, 
Philip III. 

Europe finally grew weary of the seemingly interminable strug- 
gle, and the Spanish commanders becoming convinced that it was 
impossible to reduce the Dutch rebels to obedience by force of 



454 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OE THE REEORMATWA T . 

arms, negotiations were entered into, and by the celebrated treaty 
of 1609, comparative peace was secured to Christendom. 

The treaty of 1609 was in reality an acknowledgment by Spain 
of the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, 
although the Spanish king was so unwilling to admit the fact of 
his being unable to reduce the rebel states to submission, that the 
treaty was termed simply " a truce for twelve years." Spain did 
not formally acknowledge their independence until forty years 
afterwards, in the Peace of Westphalia, at the end of the Thirty 
Years' War (1648). 

Thus ended, after a continuance of thirty-seven years, one of 
the most memorable contests of which history has to tell, one of 
the most heroic struggles that men ever maintained against eccle- 
siastical and civil despotism. 

Development of the Provinces during the War. — One of the 
most remarkable features of the war for Dutch independence was 
the vast expansion of the trade and commerce of the revolted 
provinces, and their astonishing growth in population, wealth, and 
resources, while carrying on the bitter and protracted struggle. 
The contrast in this respect between the United Provinces of the 
North and the "obedient provinces," as they were called, of the 
South, is a most striking and instructive commentary on the advan- 
tages of freedom over despotism. The Southern provinces at the 
end of the war presented a scene of almost utter ruin : grass grew 
in the streets of the once crowded commercial cities, the most 
enterprising of the traders and artizans having sought homes in the 
free cities of the North, or migrated to other countries. The "rebel 
provinces," on the other hand, had increased so rapidly in popula- 
tion, notwithstanding the waste of war, that at the end of the struggle 
the number of inhabitants crowded on that little patch of sea- 
bottom and morass constituting the Dutch Republic, was equal 
to the entire population of England ; that is to say, to three or four 
millions. 

But the home-land was only a small part of the dominions of the 
commonwealth. Through the enterprise and audacity of its bold 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROVINCES, ETC. 455 

sailors, it had made extensive acquisitions in the East Indies and 
other parts of the world, largely at the expense of the Spanish and 
Portuguese colonial possessions. 

And in a larger sense than was ever true before this period, the 
Dutch cities had become the workshops and warehouses of the 
world. Products for distribution and manufacture from every land 
beneath the sun — from all parts of Europe, from Africa, Asia, and 
the Americas — were heaped upon their wharves. Their commerce 
had so expanded that more than one hundred thousand of their 
citizens found a home upon the sea. And these Dutch sailors 
were by far the boldest and the most skilful that navigated the 
seas. A Netherland ship would sail to the Indies and back while 
a Spanish vessel was making the voyage one way. Nearly one 
thousand ships were engaged in the single industry of herring 
fishery, which, we are assured, was made to yield more gold to the 
little Republic than all the mines of the New World poured into 
the coffers of the king of Spain. 

It was during this period that the noted Dutch East India and 
West India companies were formed. These were associations of 
merchants chartered by the States-General, and given a monopoly 
of the trade in the East and West respectively, with the right to 
levy and maintain armies in order to secure and advance their 
trade. The East India Company, like the celebrated English 
association of the same name, was destined to build up in the 
East, dominions truly imperial in extent and power. 

No idlers or beggars were allowed a place in the industrious 
little Commonwealth. Monasteries, convents, and abbeys were 
converted into charitable institutions for the unfortunate, for in- 
valid soldiers, and for the children of those that fell in their 
country's service. 

The intellectual progress of the people kept pace with their 
material advance. Throughout the United Provinces it was rare 
to meet a person who could not both read and write. Colleges 
and universities were established in all the leading cities, while 
common schools were set up everywhere in town and country. 



456 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

In the natural and mechanical sciences, particularly in the de- 
partments of hydrostatics and hydraulics, — sciences which were 
urged upon the attention of the Netherlanders by the necessities 
of their situation, just as Geometry was forced upon that of the 
ancient Egyptians, — the United Provinces, during the latter part 
of the sixteenth and the first portion of the seventeenth century, 
gave birth to some of the most distinguished scholars of Europe. 



THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE. 457 



CHAPTER V. 

TJIE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE (i 562-1 629). 

The Renaissance in France. — The forerunner of the Refor- 
mation in France, as almost everywhere else, was the Renaissance. 
The Italian Wars, begun by Charles VIII., 1 and kept up by his 
immediate successors, Louis XII., Francis I., and Henry II., by 
bringing the French in contact with the new intellectual life of the 
South, had the effect of spreading beyond the Alps the contagious 
enthusiasm for classical learning and art that had seized upon the 
Italians. Francis was so zealous a promoter of the intellectual 
revival that he earned the title of" Father of Letters and Arts." 
" France became an Italy more Italian than Italy itself." Under 
the influence of the movement, architecture was transformed. On 
every side the gloomy feudal strongholds gave place to splendid 
chateaux, while the old royal residences were replaced by palaces 
magnificent and sumptuous beyond anything Europe had ever 
seen before. 

But it is the changed tone of French literature that we would 
especially note. As the representative of its freer and more skep- 
tical spirit, stands the famous Rabelais (1483-1553), a writer of 
such power and originality that his works are among the few prose 

1 Charles VIII. was the last of the direct line of the Valois kings (see p. 
309). The Valois- Orleans sovereigns, whose reigns cover the first part of 
the period treated in the present chapter, were Louis XII. (1498-15 15), 
Francis I. (1515-1547), Henry II. (1547-1559), Francis II. (1559-1560), 
Charles IX. (15C0-1574), Homy III. (1 574-1589). The successor of Henry 
III. — Henry IV. — was the first of the Bourbons. 



458 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

productions of the sixteenth century that command the attention 
of the reader of the present day. A spirit of skepticism pervades 
all his writings. His most noted work is a sort of political ro- 
mance, in which he attacks particularly the ecclesiastics with the 
keenest satire and raillery. Thus the tendency of the intellectual 
revival was altogether antagonistic to the mediaeval Church. 
Baird, in his " Rise of the Huguenots," makes the progress of 
letters, quickening intelligence and widening information, one of 
the chief causes of the rapid spread in France of the doctrines 
of the reformers. 1 

The Reformation in France. — As the intellectual revival in 
Italy brought forth a Savonarola, in England a Colet, in Germany 
a Luther and a Melanchthon, so in France did it bring forth for 
the religious reform movement a chief and champion. Intel- 
lectual enfranchisement — we cannot too often repeat it -— is sure 
to lead to religious freedom. 

The name of the leader of the French Protestants we have 
mentioned in a preceding chapter ; before repeating it, we wish 
to say a word regarding the beginnings of the Reformation in 
France. The movement here, in its inception, was a national, 
spontaneous one. Before Luther posted his ninety-five theses at 
Wittenberg, there appeared in the University of Paris and else- 
where in France men who, from their study of the Scriptures, had 
come to entertain opinions very like those of the German re- 
former. The land which had been the home of the Albigenses 
is again filled with heretics. The movement thus begun received 
a fresh impulse from the uprising in Germany under Luther. 
But Luther could not become the acknowledged leader of the 
Reformation in France. He was too intensely German. The 
movement in France, as we have said, gave birth to its own chief. 
This was John Calvin (1509-15 64), who, forced by persecution, 
as has been told already, to flee from France, found a refuge in 
Geneva, and made that city the cradle of French Protestantism. 

1 Vol. I. p. 400. See also Stephen's lectures on the History of France, 
chaps. XV. and XVI. 



CATHERINE DE MEDICI AND THE GUISES. 459 

The Reformed Faith under Francis I. and Hf,nry II. — Fran- 
cis I. (15 15-1547) was alternately the friend and persecutor of his 
Protestant subjects. His most bitter persecutions, as we have 
seen, were carried on during the latter part of his reign, his hands 
then being free from his wars with the Emperor Charles V. 

Henry II. (1547-1559), son and successor of Francis, revived 
the old quarrel with Spain, carrying it on first with Charles V., 
and afterwards with his son Philip II. These wars were finally 
brought to an end by the treaty of Cateau Cambresis (1558). 
One thing that inclined both Henry and Philip to this peace was 
the desire of each to have his hands disengaged, in order that he 
might devote himself wholly to the work of rooting out heresy in 
his dominions. 

It was Henry's cruel persecution of his Protestant subjects — 
a persecution which was largely instigated by his infamous mistress, 
Diana of Poitiers — that sowed the seeds of those long and woful 
civil and religious wars which he left as a terrible legacy to his 
three feeble sons, Francis, Charles, and Henry, who followed him 
in succession upon the throne. 

Notwithstanding the persecutions of Francis I. and Henry II., 
the reformed faith gained ground rapidly in France during their 
reigns, so that by the time of Henry's death the confessors of the 
reformed creed numbered probably 400,000. The new doctrines 
had especially found adherents among the nobility and the higher 
classes, and had taken particularly deep root in the South, — the 
region of the old Albigensian heresy. 

Francis II. (1559-1560). — Francis II. was a mentally and 
physically weak boy of sixteen years. When he came to the throne, 
he had just been married to the beautiful and fascinating Mary 
Stuart of Scotland. He was upon the throne, but the power 
behind the throne was his mother, the notorious Catherine de 
Medici, and the powerful chiefs of the family of the Guises. The 
boy-king we may pass in silence, but respecting these other per- 
sons we must say something. 

Catherine de Medici and the Guises. — Catherine, the queen- 



460 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

mother, was an intriguing, treacherous Italian. She was the very 
impersonation of all the abominable principles laid down by the 
celebrated Italian writer Machiavelli as those which should guide 
a prince in the conduct of state affairs. Some claim that she was 
a bigoted Catholic ; but it seems more probable that she was 
almost or quite destitute of religious convictions of any kind. 
What she sought was power, and this she was ready to secure by 
any means. When it suited her purpose, she favored the Hu- 
guenots ; and when it suited her purpose better, she incited the 
Catholics to massacre them. Perhaps no other woman ever made 
so much trouble in the world. She corrupted every one that came 
under her influence. She surrounded herself with a company of 
vivacious and beautiful young ladies, through the witchery of 
whose charms she beguiled, enslaved, or ruined the men whom 
she wished to use, or to get out of the way. She made France 
wretched through the three successive reigns of her sons, and 
brought her house to a shameful and miserable end. 

At the head of the family of the Guises stood Francis, Duke 
of Guise, a famous commander, who had gained great credit and 
popularity among his countrymen by many military exploits, es- 
pecially by his capture of Calais from the English in the recent 
Spanish wars. By his side stood a younger brother Charles, 
Cardinal of Lorraine. Both of these men were ardent Catholics. 
The Duke aspired to be king of France, the Cardinal to be Pope. 
Mary Stuart, the young queen, was their niece, and through her 
they ruled the boy-king. Their relation to the government has 
been well likened to that sustained by the Mayors of the Palace 
in Merovingian times. The Pope and the king of Spain were 
friends and allies of the Guises. 

The Bourbon Princes and Admiral Coligny. — Opposed to the 
Guises were the Bourbon princes, Antoine, King of Navarre, and 
Louis, Prince of Conde, who could claim descent from St. Louis, 
and who, next after the brothers of Francis II., were heirs to the 
French throne. Unfortunately, Antoine was not a man of deep 
and earnest convictions ; but he at first sided with the Protestants 



THE CONSPIRACY OF AM BOISE. 461 

because it was only through forming an alliance with them that 
he could carry on his opposition to the Guises. Indeed, every one 
of the princes of the family (save the Louis just mentioned) to 
whom the Protestants entrusted their cause during the course of 
the religious wars, either through fear or policy betrayed or abjured 
the faith to which he had at one time assented. 

A man of very different character was Gaspard de Coligny, 
Admiral of France, " the military hero of the French Reforma- 
tion." He had early in life embraced the doctrines of the 
reformers, and remained to the last the trusted and consistent, 
though ill-starred, champion of the Protestants. With the Bour- 
bon princes and Admiral Coligny were the greater part of the 
nobility of France. 

The Conspiracy of Amboise (1560). — The foregoing notice of 
parties and their chiefs will render intelligible the events which we 
now have to narrate. The harsh measures adopted against the 
reformers by Francis II., who of course was entirely under the 
influence of the Guises, led the chiefs of the persecuted party to 
lay a plan for wresting the government from the hands of these 
" new Mayors of the Palace." The Guises were to be arrested and 
imprisoned, and the charge of the young king given to the Prince 
of Conde. The plot was revealed to the Guises, and was 
avenged by fresh slaughters of the Huguenots. 1 More than a 
thousand supposed participators in the conspiracy were executed 
with every refinement of cruelty, the burnings and hangings being 
frequently arranged as after-dinner entertainments for the court 
ladies. Francis and his young queen were often spectators of these 
inhuman exhibitions. 

Shortly after this the young king died, and this event probably 
was all that saved the lives of Conde and his brother. The 
widowed queen soon went to Scotland, where we have met her, 
and followed her to her tragic end on the block in England. 

1 It was at this time that the name Huguenot arose. The word is probably 
a corruption of the German Eidgenosscn, meaning " oath-comrades." 



462 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

Francis's brother Charles now came to the throne as Charles IX. 
He was only ten years of age, so the queen-mother assumed the 
government in his name. Pursuing her favorite maxim to rule 
by setting one party as a counterpoise to the other, she now gave 
the Bourbon princes a place in the government, and also by a 
royal edict gave the Huguenots a limited toleration, and forbade 
their further persecution. Thus they were given permission to 
hold meetings for worship, provided they gathered unarmed and 
outside of town walls. " This was the first official recognition of 
the principle of religious toleration in France." 

The Massacre of Vassy (1562). — These concessions in favor 
of the Huguenots angered the Catholic chiefs, particularly the 
Guises ; and it was the bold violation by the Duke of the edict of 
toleration that finally caused the growing animosities of the two 
parties to break out in civil war. While passing through the coun- 
try with a body of armed attendants, he found, at a small place 
called Vassy, a company of Huguenots assembled in a barn for 
worship. His retainers first insulted and then attacked them, kill- 
ing about forty of the company and wounding many more. 

The Huguenots, through their leaders, demanded of the king 
that the perpetrators of the outrage be punished. When Antoine, 
the King of Navarre — the inconstant Antoine had gone over to 
the Catholic side — attempted to lay the blame upon the Hugue- 
nots, and declared that he should uphold the Duke of Guise, 
Theodore Beza, the speaker for the persecuted sect, made this 
memorable reply : " Sire, it is true that it is the lot of the Church 
of God, in the name of which I speak, to endure blows, and not 
to give them ; but also may it please you to remember that it is 
an anvil that has worn out many hammers." 

But there were those among the Huguenots who believed that 
the time for unresisting martyrdom had passed, and that the time 
had come for them to give as well as to receive blows. Accord- 
ingly, under the lead of Admiral Coligny and the Prince of Conde, 
the Huguenots now rose throughout France. Philip II. of Spain 
sent an army to aid the Catholics, while Elizabeth of England ex- 
tended help to the Huguenots. 



THE TREATY OF ST. GERMAIN. 463 

The Character of the War. — For eight years l the country was 
now kept in a perfect turmoil. Both parties displayed a ferocity 
of disposition more befitting pagans that Christians. But it should 
be borne in mind that many on both sides were actuated by politi- 
cal ambition, rather than by religious conviction, knowing little 
and caring less about the distinctions in the creeds for which they 
were ostensibly fighting. 

Sieges, battles, and truces followed one another in rapid and 
confusing succession. The " massacre of images " on the part of 
the Huguenots was avenged by the massacre of heretics on the 
part of the Catholics. 

Conspiracies, treacheries, and assassinations help to fill up the 
dreary records of the period. The King of Navarre fell in battle 
(1562) ; the Duke of Guise was assassinated (1563) ; the Prince 
of Conde was treacherously murdered (1569). 

The Treaty of St. Germain (1570). — The Treaty of St. Ger- 
main brought a short but, as it proved, delusive peace. The terms 
of the treaty were very favorable to the Huguenots. They received 
four towns, — among which was La Rochelle, the stronghold of 

1 What are usually designated as the First, Second, and Third Wars were 
really one. The table below exhibits the wars of the entire period of which 
we are treating. Some make the Religious Wars proper end with the Edict 
of Nantes (1598); others, with the fall of La Rochelle (1628). 

First War (ended by Peace of Amboise) 1562-1563. 

Second War (ended by Peace of Longjumeau) .... 1567-1568. 

Third War (ended by Peace of St. Germain) 156S-1570. 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, Aug. 24 1572. 

Fourth War (ended by Peace of La Rochelle) 1572-1573. 

Fifth War (ended by Peace of Chastenoy) 1574-1576. 

Sixth War (ended by Peace of Bergerac) 1577. 

Seventh War (ended by Treaty of Fleix) 1579-1580. 

Eighth War (War of the Three Henries) 1585-1589. 

Henry of Bourbon, King of Navarre, secures the throne . . . 1589. 

Edict of Nantes 1598. 

Siege and fall of La Rochelle 1627-1628. 

By the fall of La Rochelle the political power of the Huguenots was com- 
pletely prostrated. 



464 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

the Huguenot faith, — which they might garrison and hold as 
places of safety and pledges of good faith. 

To cement the treaty, Catherine de Medici now proposed that 
the Princess Marguerite, the sister of Charles IX., should be given 
in marriage to Henry of Bourbon, the new young King of Navarre. 
The announcement of the proposed alliance caused great rejoicing 
among both Catholics and Protestants, and the chiefs of both 
parties crowded to Paris to attend the wedding, which took place 
on the 1 8th of August, 1572. 

The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (Aug. 24, 1572). — 
Before the festivities which followed the nuptial ceremonies were 
over, the world was shocked by one of the most awful crimes of 
which history has to tell, — the massacre of the Huguenots in 
Paris on St. Bartholomew's Day. 

The circumstances which led to this fearful tragedy were as 
follows : Among the Protestant nobles who came up to Paris to 
attend the wedding was the Admiral Coligny. Upon coming in 
contact with Charles IX., the Admiral secured almost immediately 
an entire ascendency over his mind. This influence Coligny used 
to draw the king away from the queen-mother and the Guises. 
Fearing the loss of her influence over her son, Catherine resolved 
upon the death of the Admiral. The attempt miscarried, Coligny 
receiving only a slight wound from the assassin's ball. 

The Huguenots now rallied about their wounded chief with loud 
threats of revenge. Catherine, driven on by insane fear and 
hatred, now determined upon the death of all the Huguenots in 
Paris as the only measure of safety. By the 23d of August, the 
plans for the massacre were all arranged. On the evening of that 
day, Catherine went to her son, and represented to him that the 
Huguenots had formed a plot for the assassination of the royal 
family and the leaders of the Catholic party, and that the utter 
ruin of their house and cause could be averted only by the imme- 
diate destruction of the Protestants within the city walls. The 
order for this massacre was then laid before him for his signature. 
The weak-minded king shrank in terror from the deed, and at 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S PAY. 465 

first refused to sign the decree, but, overcome at last by the repre- 
sentations of his mother, he exclaimed, " I agree to the scheme, 
provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France to reproach me 
with the deed." 

A little past the hour of midnight on St. Bartholomew's Day 
(Aug. 24, 1572), at a preconcerted signal, — the tolling of a bell, 
— the Catholics, distinguished by white scarfs on their left arms, 
and white crosses on their caps, fell upon the Huguenots, and 
massacred, without distinction of age or sex, all previously marked 
for the slaughter. 

Coligny was one of the first victims. After his assassins had 
done their work, they tossed the body out of the window of the 
chamber in which it lay into the street, in order that the Duke of 
Guise, who stood below, might satisfy himself that his enemy was 
really dead. The head was then cut off and sent to Rome as a 
present to the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorraine, while the muti- 
lated body was for three days trailed by boys through the streets 
of Paris. With the noble-hearted Coligny expired the last hope 
of the French Reformation. 

For three days and nights the orgies of death went on within the 
city. All who were suspected of sympathizing with the reformers 
were killed without mercy. King Charles himself is said to have 
joined in the work, and from one of the windows of the Palace of 
the Louvre to have fired upon the Huguenots as they fled past. 
The number of victims in Paris is variously estimated at from 3,000 
to 10,000. The dead bodies were dragged through the streets, 
and flung into the Seine. 1 

With the capitol cleared of Huguenots, orders were issued to 
the principal cities of France to purge themselves in like manner 
of heretics. In many places the instincts of humanity prevailed 
over fear of the royal resentment, and the decree was disobeyed. 
But in other places the orders were carried out, and frightful mas- 
sacres took place. The entire number of victims throughout the 
country was probably between 20,000 and 30,000. 

1 The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde saved their lives by con- 
senting to attend mass. 



466 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day raised a cry of execra- 
tion in almost every part of the civilized world save at Rome and 
in Spain. Queen Elizabeth put her court in mourning, and her 
Council denounced the slaughter as " the most heinous act that 
had occurred in the world since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ." 
The Protestants in the Netherlands, who, in their struggle with 
Philip II., had been entertaining hopes of help from their French 
brethren, were plunged almost into despair at the unexpected and 
awful blow. 

On the other hand, Philip, when the news reached him, " seemed 
more delighted than with all the good fortune or happy incidents 
which had ever before occurred to him," and for the first time in 
his life the taciturn schemer is said to have laughed aloud ; while 
at Rome the Pope returned public thanks to God for his manifest 
favor to the Holy Church, causing a Te Deam in commemoration 
of the event to be performed in the church of St. Mark. He also 
had a medal struck, bearing on one side his own effigy, and on 
the other a picture of a destroying angel slaying the Huguenots. 

Charles, who lived not quite two years after the massacre, suf- 
fered the keenest remorse for the part he had taken in the awful 
tragedy. His body was often bathed in a bloody sweat, and visions 
of the slaughtered Huguenots constantly haunted his troubled 
sleep. 

Reign of Henry III. (15 74-1589). — The massacre of St. 
Bartholomew's Day, instead of exterminating heresy in France, 
only served to rouse the Huguenots to a more determined defense 
of their faith. Throughout the last two years of the reign of Charles 
IX., and the fifteen succeeding years of the reign of his brother 
Henry III., the country was in a state of turmoil and war. By 
granting privileges to the Huguenots, Henry angered the Catholics, 
who, for the maintenance of the ancient Church, formed what was 
known as the Holy League, the head of which was the Duke of 
Guise. Finally, in 1589, the king, who, jealous of the growing 
power and popularity of the Duke of Guise, had caused him to be 
assassinated, was himself struck down by the avenging dagger of a 



HENRY TURNS CATHOLIC. 467 

fanatic Dominican monk. With him ended the House of Valois- 
( Orleans. "Corrupted by their own mother, the line had ended in 
disgrace and wretchedness." 

Henry of Bourbon, King of Navarre, who for many years had 
been the most prominent leader of the Huguenots, now came to 
the throne as the first of the Bourbon kings. 

Accession of Henry IV. (1589). — Notwithstanding that the 
doctrines of the reformers had made rapid progress in France 
under the sons of Henry II., still the majority of the nation at the 
time of the death of Henry III. were Roman Catholics in faith and 
worship. Under these circumstances, especially if we bear in 
mind what deep animosities of party and creed had been aroused 
by the bitter feuds of half a century, we shall hardly expect to find 
the entire nation quietly acquiescing in the accession to the French 
throne of a Protestant prince, and he the leader and champion of 
the hated Huguenots. 

Nor did Henry secure without a struggle the crown that was his 
by right. The Catholic League, headed now by the Duke of May- 
ence, had declared for Cardinal Bourbon, an uncle of the King of 
Navarre, and France was thus kept in the whirl of civil war. 
Elizabeth of England aided the Protestants, and Philip II. of 
Spain assisted the Catholics. 

Henry turns Catholic (1593). — After the war had gone 011 for 
about four years, — during which time was fought the noted 
battle of Ivry, in which Henry led his soldiers to victory by telling 
them to follow the white plume on his hat, — the quarrel was 
closed, for the time being, by an act on Henry's part hardly to be 
anticipated. This was his abjuration of the Huguenot faith, and 
the adoption of that of the Roman Catholic Church (1593). 

Mingled motives led Henry to do this. He was personally 
liked, even by the Catholic chiefs, and lie was well aware that it 
was only his Huguenot faith that prevented their being his hearty 
supporters. Hence duty and policy seemed to him to concur in 
urging him to remove the sole obstacle in the way of their ready 
loyalty, and thus bring peace and quiet to distracted France. 



46S THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

The Catholic League now fell to pieces. Henry was crowned 
at Chartres ; and shortly afterwards Paris, which had been in 
the hands of Henry's enemies, opened its gates to him. The 
Spanish soldiers, who had been helping to hold the place, were 
conducted out of the city by Henry with mock ceremony, and 
charged with his compliments to their master Philip. 

" So fair a city," said Henry, with his usual levity, when once 
within the capital, " was well worth a mass." The king's lan- 
guage betrayed how lightly his religious convictions sat upon him ; 
nevertheless the Pope, as soon as he saw how affairs were running, 
personally absolved the returned prodigal from the sin of heresy 
and schism. 

The Edict of Nantes (1598). — As soon as Henry had become 
the crowned and acknowledged king of France, he gave himself 
to the work of composing the affairs of his kingdom. The most 
noteworthy of the measures he adopted to this end was the publi- 
cation of the celebrated Edict of Nantes (April 15, 1598). * This 
decree granted the Huguenots practical freedom of worship, 
opened to them all offices and employments, and gave them as 
places of refuge and defense a large number of fortified towns, 
among which was the important city of La Rochelle. It is asserted 
that the Roman mass had not been heard within the walls of this 
city for nearly forty years. 

Character of Henry IV.'s Reign: His Plans and Death. — The 
temporary hushing of the long-continued quarrels of the Catholics 
and Protestants by the adoption of the principle of religious tolera- 
tion paved the way for a revival of the trade and industries of the 
country, which had been almost destroyed by the anarchy and 
waste of the civil wars. France now entered upon such a period 
of prosperity as she had not known for many years. The material 
and moral welfare of all his subjects, particularly of the lower 
classes, was Henry's special care. His paternal solicitude for his 

1 A few weeks after signing the Edict of Nantes, which gave domestic 
quiet to France, Henry concluded with Philip II. the peace of Vervins (May 
2, 1598), which closed the war with Spain. 



CARDINAL RICHELIEU. 469 

humblest subjects, which secured for him the title of " Father of 
his People," has a memorial in his oft-quoted declaration, " If I 
live, the poorest peasant shall have a fowl to put in his pot on 
Sundays." 

In devising and carrying out his measures of reform, Henry was 
aided by one of the most prudent and sagacious advisers that ever 
strengthened the hands of a prince, — the illustrious Duke of 
Sully. He was an author as well as statesman, and in his 
Memoirs left one of the most valuable records we possess of the 
transactions in which he took so prominent a part. 

Towards the close of his reign Henry, feeling strong in his 
resources and secure in his power, began to revolve in his mind 
vast projects for the aggrandizement of France and the weakening 
of her old enemy, — the House of Hapsburg in both its branches. 1 
He was making great preparations for war, when the dagger of a 
fanatic by the name of Ravaillac, who regarded Henry as an enemy 
of the Roman Catholic Church, cut short his life and plans (i6io)._J. 

Louis XIII. (1610-1643) : the Regency. — As Henry's son 
Louis, who succeeded him, was a mere child of nine years, during 
his minority the government was administered by his mother, Mary 
de Medici. Nothing was done, but much undone, by the queen- 
regent. The wounds of the old religious wars, which were just 
beginning to heal, were torn open afresh ; the public treasures 
accumulated by Henry's economy were shamefully wasted upon 
unworthy Italian courtiers ; and everything fell into disordef and 
the government into contempt. 

Cardinal Richelieu and his Policy. — Upon attaining his major- 
ity, Louis took the government into his own hands and banished his 

1 In connection with his designs against the House of Hapsburg, Henry 
seems to have had in mind a most magnificent scheme, which was nothing less 
than the organization of all the Christian states of Europe (save Russia) into 
a great confederation or commonwealth. The ostensible objects of the 
" Christian Republic " were the securing of religious toleration to all the differ- 
ent Christian sects, the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, and the doing 
away with war by the creation of an international tribunal, by which all dis- 
putes between nations should be settled through peaceful arbitration. 



470 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

mother from court. But the king was frivolous and weak, and 
entirely unable to manage the different parties about him, or to 
lift the kingdom out of the troubles into which it had fallen. The 
States-General was assembled in 1614m the hope that it might 
devise some way out of existing embarrassments. But it effected 
nothing, and was dismissed, not to meet again for one hundred and 
seventy-five years, — not until the memorable year 1789. 

But though neither king nor estates were able to manage af- 
fairs, there fortunately was a man, a member of the recent States- 
General, who had mind and will sufficient for the task. This was 
Cardinal Richelieu, the Wolsey of France, one of the most remark- 
able characters of the seventeenth century. To him we might 
apply the words used by Frederick the Great of Prussia respecting 
one of England's greatest statesmen, and say that France had at 
last brought forth a man. From the time that Louis admitted the 
young prelate to his cabinet (in 1622), the ecclesiastic became 
the actual sovereign of France, and for the space of twenty years 
swayed the destinies not only of that country, but, it might almost 
be said, those of Europe as well. 

His policy was two-fold : first, to render the authority of the 
French king absolute in France ; second, to make the power of 
France supreme in Europe. 

To attain the first end, Richelieu sought to crush the political 
power of the Huguenots, and to trample out the last vestige of 
independence among the old feudal aristocracy ; to secure the 
second, he labored to break down the power of both branches of 
the House of Hapsburg, — that is, of Austria and Spain. With 
these rivals crushed, France would be easily first among the states 
of Europe. 

For nearly the life-time of a generation Richelieu, by intrigue, 
diplomacy, and war, pursued with unrelenting purpose these ob- 
jects of his ambition. At times, when it suited best his purpose, 
he put on the helmet of the warrior, and led in person the armies 
of France ; and then again he donned the red cap of the cardinal, 
and forced proud nobles to kneel before him, and at his feet seek 



POLITICAL POWER OF THE HUGUENOTS CRUSHED. 471 

pardon for acts which his own unbearable tyranny had provoked. 
His own words best indicate how he proposed to use his double 
authority as cardinal and prime minister : " I shall trample all 
opposition under foot," said he, "and then cover all errors with 
my scarlet robe." 

In the following paragraph we will speak very briefly of the 
Cardinal's dealings with the Huguenots, which feature alone of 
his policy at present especially concerns us. 

Political Power of the Huguenots crushed. — In the prose- 
cution of his plans, Cardinal Richelieu's first step was to break 
down the political power of the Huguenot chiefs, who, dissatisfied 
with their position in the government, and irritated by religious 
grievances, were revolving in mind the founding in France of a 
Protestant commonwealth like that which the Prince of Orange 
and his adherents had set up in the Netherlands. The capital of 
this new Republic was to be La Rochelle, on the southwestern 
coast of France, which city, it will be recalled, was by the Edict 
of Nantes granted to the Protestants as a place of security. 

In 1627, an alliance having been formed between England and 
the French Protestant nobles, an English fleet and army was sent 
across the Channel to aid the Huguenot enterprise. 

Richelieu now resolved to ruin forever the power of these Protest- 
ant nobles who were constantly challenging the royal authority 
and threatening the dismemberment of France. Accordingly he 
led in person an army to the siege of La Rochelle, which, after 
a gallant resistance of more than a year, during which time famine, 
sickness, and the casualties of war reduced the population of the 
place from 30,000 to 5,000 persons, was compelled to open its 
gates to the forces of the Cardinal (1628). That the place might 
never again be made the centre of resistance to the royal power, 
Louis ordered that " the fortifications be razed to the ground, in 
such wise that the plow may plow through the soil as through tilled 
land." 

The Huguenots maintained the struggle a few months longer in 
the south of France, but were finally everywhere reduced to sub- 



472 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

mission. The result of the war was the complete destruction of 
the political power of the French Protestants. A treaty of peace 
2 1 called the Edict of Gra ce, negotiated the year after the fall of La 
Rochelle, left them, however, freedom of worship, according to the 
provisions of the Edict of Nantes. 

The Edict of Grace properly marks the close of the religious 
wars which had desolated France for two generations (from 1562 
to 1629). It is estimated that this series of wars and massacres 
cost France one million lives, and that between three and four 
hundred hamlets and towns were destroyed by the contending 
parties. 

Richelieu and the Thirty Years' War. — When Cardinal 
Richelieu came to the head of affairs in France, there was going 
on in Germany the Thirty Years' War (161 8-1648), of which we 
shall tell in the following chapter. This was very much such a 
struggle between the Catholic and Protestant German princes as 
we have seen waged between the two religious parties in France. 

Although Richelieu had just crushed French Protestantism, he 
now gives aid to the Protestant princes of Germany, because their 
success meant the division of Germany and the humiliation of 
Austria. At first he gave assistance in the form of subsidies to 
Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, who had become the cham- 
pion of the German Protestants ; but later he sent the armies of 
France to take direct part in the struggle. 

Richelieu did not live to see the end either of the Thirty Years' 
War or of that which he had begun with Spain ; but this foreign 
policy of the great minister, carried out by others, finally resulted, 
as we shall learn hereafter, in the humiliation of both branches of 
the House of Hapsburg, and the lifting of France to the first place 
among the powers of Europe. 



NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WAR. 473 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR (1618-1648). 

Nature and Causes of the War. — The long and calamitous 
Thirty Years' War was the last great combat between Protestant- 
ism and Catholicism in Europe. It started as a struggle between 
the Protestant and Catholic princes of Germany, but gradually 
involved almost all the states of the continent, degenerating at last 
into a shameful and heartless struggle for power and territory. 

The real cause of the war must of course be sought in the irrec- 
oncilable character of the two creeds in Germany. But if we 
seek a more specific cause, it will be found in the defective char- 
acter of the articles of the celebrated Religious Peace of Augsburg l 
(1555). There were at least three things in that treaty well cal- 
culated to make future trouble. 

First. Each secular prince was given permission to set up in his 
dominions either the Catholic or the Lutheran Church, and to drive 
out all persons who did not accept the State creed. This provision 
gave rise to much tyranny, and created great bitterness of feeling 
between the different religious sects, — Catholics, Lutherans, and 
Calvinists. 

Second. By virtue of the famous clause known as the Ecclesias- 
tical Reservation, any spiritual prince (i.e., bishop or abbot holding 
immediately of the Empire) upon turning Protestant, was required 
to give up his office and lands. The Lutherans did not admit the 
validity of this article, and evading it, got many of the Catholic 
bishoprics in North Germany in Protestant hands. This was made 
a matter of bitter complaint on the part of the Catholics. 

1 See above, page 392. 



474 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

Third. The treaty, as interpreted by the Catholics, provided that 
lands not secularized in 1552 (the time of the Convention of 
Passau) should forever remain in the hands of the Catholics. The 
Protestant princes read the treaty differently, and continued to 
seize Church lands situated in their territories and turn them to 
their own private use, or use them to provide for the Protestant 
worship. This was another fruitful source of discord between the 
two great religious parties. 

The Evangelical Union and the Holy League. — The wretched 
treaty did not bear its most bitter fruit at once. Fortunately, the two 
immediate successors of Charles V. in the Imperial office — Ferdi- 
nand I. (1556-1564) and Maximilian II. (1564-15 76) — were 
both men of enlightened views and tolerant disposition, and under 
them the Protestant doctrines, unimpeded by persecution, spread 
rapidly ; so rapidly, indeed, that by the close of Maximilian's reign 
the members of the reformed Church far outnumbered those who 
still adhered to the ancient faith. It is estimated that ninety per 
cent of the population of the Empire was at this time Protestant. 

But Rudolf II. (15 76-161 2), the third in succession from 
Charles V., unfortunately was just the opposite of his two predeces- 
sors, being a bigoted and intolerant Catholic. Instigated by the 
Jesuits, he planned to extirpate Protestantism in his hereditary 
dominions. His harsh dealings with the Protestants of Hungary 
and Bohemia led them to rebel against his authority and to call 
upon the Turks for aid. All Protestant Germany was alarmed by 
the course of the Emperor, and in the year 1608 there was formed 
. _. among the Protestant states a confederation, like the League of 
Schmalkald, called the Evangelical Union, which was to continue 
for ten years. The nominal head of the Union was the Elector 
Palatine ; but the most active member of the confederation, and 
its organizer, was Prince Christian of x\nhalt. 

In opposition to the Union, the Catholics formed a confedera- 

'' f It tion known as the Catholic or Holy League (1609). The head 

of this body was Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria. All Germany was 

thus prepared to burst into the flames of a religious war. Just a 



/ 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BOHEMIAN PROTESTANTS. 475 

few years before the breaking out of the struggle Rudolf II. died, 
and his brother Matthias (16 12-16 19) was given the Imperial 
crown. 

The Beginning of the War (16 18). — The flames destined to 
desolate Germany for a generation were first kindled in Bohemia, 
where were still smouldering embers of the Hussite wars, which 
two centuries before had desolated that land. The throne of this 
state was now held by Ferdinand, a cousin of the Emperor Mat- 
thias, and a most zealous Catholic. To compose the troubles 
which his persecution of the Protestants had stirred up in Bohemia, 
Rudolf had given to that state a charter known as the Letter of 
Majesty, or Royal Charter, which granted to the Protestant nobles 
and cities full freedom of worship, with permission to erect school- 
houses and churches not only on their own lands, but on those 
belonging to the crown. A church which the Protestants main- 
tained they had a right to build, under the provisions of this char- 
ter, was torn down by the Catholics, and another was closed. Ex- 
postulations addressed to the Emperor by the reformers being met 
by an unsatisfactory reply, a mob of Protestants proceeded to the 
Royal Castle at Prague, and threw two of the Imperial councilors 
out of the window. A sort of provisional government to be carried 
on by thirty noblemen was now organized, and the Jesuits were 
driven into exile. 

The Thirty Years' War had begun (16 18) ; but for the Protest- 
ants it was "a bad beginning." Almost an exact century had 
passed since Luther posted his theses against the door of the 
court church at Wittenberg. 

Suppression of the Bohemian Protestants. — Scarcely had the 
war begun when Matthias died, and the Electors chose Ferdinand, 
king of Bohemia, as his successor in the Imperial office. Though 
Ferdinand was well known as a violent and bigoted Catholic, the 
three Protestant Electors cast their votes for him, they either be- 
ing deceived by his false promises, or being won to this course by 
selfish ambition or through the persuasion of a bribe. 

Only a few days before this election the Bohemians had deposed 



476 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

Ferdinand, and elected in his stead as their king Frederick V. of 
the Palatinate, in the double hope that, being a Protestant prince, 
he would be supported by the Union, as well as by his father-in- 
law, James I. of England. Unfortunately nothing turned out as 
the Bohemians had hoped. Frederick proved a foolish trifler ; the 
Union, weakened by dissensions between the Calvinists and Luth- 
erans, did nothing ; and the English king extended no aid. On 
the other hand, Ferdinand received help from the Catholic League, 
from Spain and Italy, and even from the Protestant Elector of 
Saxony, who, being a Lutheran, was ready to fight against the 
Elector Frederick because he was a Calvinist. 

The result of the unequal contest might have been easily fore- 
cast. The Protestants were quickly crushed, their leaders executed, 
and thousands of their followers banished and their goods confis- 
cated. The Catholics finally obtained possession of all the 
churches and schools of the exiled sect. 

Frederick was driven not only out of Bohemia, but out of the 
Palatinate as well. In a letter to his wife, written while he was a 
fugitive at Sedan, he says pathetically, "Would to God that we 
possessed a little corner of the earth where we could rest together 
in peace." The Electorate was, in time, given to Maximilian of 
Bavaria, which transfer made the Electoral House overwhelmingly 
Catholic. 

King of Denmark Champions the German Protestants. — The 
situation of affairs, with a zealous and powerful Catholic inclined 
and prepared to follow in the footsteps of Charles V. at the head 
of the Germanic body, filled not only the Protestant princes of 
Germany, but all the Protestant powers of the North with the 
greatest alarm. Christian IV., king of Denmark, supported by 
England and Holland, threw himself into the struggle — which was 
still being carried on in a desultory manner — as the champion of 
German Protestantism. He now becomes the central figure on 
the side of the reformers ; alongside of him are Count Mansfield, 
and Christian of Anhalt. On the side of the Catholics are two 
noted commanders, — Tilly, the leader of the forces of the Holy 



DEFEATS AND LOSSES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 477 

League, and WaUenstein, the commander of the Imperial army. 
What is known as the Danish campaigns now begin (1625). l 

WaUenstein and his System. — WaUenstein was the most re- 
markable character that appeared during the Thirty Years' War. 
He does not rise to our notice until after the appearance upon the 
scene of the king of Denmark. With Christian IV. other enemies, 
too, had arisen about the Emperor, who saw clearly that, if he 
hoped to oppose successfully the Danish king and his allies, he 
must have another army besides that headed by Tilly. But unfor- 
tunately he was entirely without means either to equip or pay such 
a force as he ought at once to put into the field. 

The Emperor's embarrassment was relieved by the offer of a 
wealthy Bohemian nobleman, Albert von WaUenstein, who pro- 
posed to raise an army of 20,000 men at his own cost, and to 
support and pay the soldiers by forced contributions from the 
authorities of the states through which the army might move. 
The oft-repeated invocation, " God help the land to which these 
men come," is the only commentary needed upon the conse- 
quences attending the march of Wallenstein's self-sustaining army. 

Defeats and Losses of the Protestants. — The spring of the year 
1626 saw two large rostile armies ready to work what harm they 
might to each c cher. md to inflict untold woe upon all Germany. 
Under the banners of Tilly and WaUenstein marched 70,000 men ; 
beneath those of the Danish king, Mansfield, and Christian of 
Anhalt, moved 60,000. 

The campaign at every point went against the Protestant allies. 
Mansfield was utterly defeated by WaUenstein at Dessau on the 
Elbe, and* shortly afterwards died. Like the Roman Emperor 
Vespasian, when dying he asked his attendants to lift him upon 
his feet, that he might die standing as befitted a warrior. " Be 
united, and hold out like men," was his last charge to his com- 
panions in arms. 

1 In detailed histories of the Thirty Years' War the following divisions are 
usually followed: I. Bohemian Period (161S-1623); 2. Danish Period (1625- 
1629); 3. Swedish Period (1630-1635); 4. Swedish-French Period (1635- 
1648). 



478 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

Shortly after the death of Mansfield, Christian of Anhalt died, 
and following closely this event came the defeat of Christian of 
Denmark by Tilly at Lutter. The Protestant cause now seemed 
hopeless. Germany was in about the same condition that she 
was in at the end of the Schmalkaldic war. The Protestants in 
Bohemia and Austria were forced to abjure the new faith and 
return to the old. Saxony, Brandenburg, the duchies of Meck- 
lenburg, Holstein, Jutland, and Pomerania were overrun and 
desolated by the Imperial armies. Wallenstein then directed his 
forces against the Hanseatic towns, the possession of whose naval 
armaments would give the Emperor control of the Baltic. Several 
of the largest cities of the league were brought over by force or 
intimidation ; but the little town of Stralsund made a stout and 
successful resistance, notwithstanding Wallenstein's reported vow 
that he would take it " though it were fastened by chains to God's 
own throne." 

Peace of Liibeck (1629). — Another repulse, met at the town 
of Gliickstadt, the defense of which was aided by the Danish fleet, 
convinced Wallenstein that the time had come to make overtures 
of peace to the Danes, since now the Swedish king, Gustavus 
Adolphus, was already extending aid to the German Protestants. 
A treaty was soon concluded with Christian IV., who now retired 
from the struggle (1629). The Peace of Ltibeck marks the end 
of what is known as the Danish portion of the war. 

The Edict of Restitution (1629). — Germany was now com- 
pletely subjected to the Emperor. Throughout the South the 
persistent and relentless measures of Ferdinand and the Jesuits 
had reestablished the Roman Catholic worship. The Same thing 
was now to be effected in the North. By what is known as the 
Edict of Restitution, Ferdinand restored to the Catholics all the 
ecclesiastical lands and foundations of which possession had been 
taken by the Protestants since the Treaty of Passau. This decree 
gave back to the Roman Church two archbishoprics, twelve bish- 
oprics, besides many monasteries and other ecclesiastical founda- 
tions. The edict was not, it is true, contrary to the strict letter 



WALLENSTEIN REMOVED FROM COMMAND. 479 

of the Ecclesiastical Reservation of the Peace of Augsburg ; still, 
the rigid enforcement at this time of that clause of the treaty was 
regarded by the Protestants, who had always protested against the 
provision and refused to regard themselves as bound by it, as a 
most harsh and unjust act. In this proceeding Ferdinand has 
been well likened to Shylock insisting upon the pound of flesh 
nominated in the bond. 

Wallenstein removed from Command (1630). — At this mo- 
ment of seeming triumph Ferdinand was constrained by rising 
discontent and jealousies to dismiss from his service his most 
efficient general, Wallenstein, who had made almost all classes, 
save his soldiers, his bitter enemies. The people were crying out 
against his outrageous exactions and contributions, which were sup- 
porting his soldiers in luxury while the pillaged people were dying 
of starvation. The princes of the Catholic League were bitterly 
jealous of him, because he was bending everything to his purpose 
of building up the Imperial power upon the ruins of their own 
authority. Wallenstein's idea was that " it was time for the Em- 
peror to make himself master of Germany as the kings of France 
and Spain were masters of their dominions." The clergy were 
opposed to him because they saw that he was as ready, in further- 
ing his plans, to break down their power as that of the princes. 
The way in which he regarded the ecclesiastical dominion of 
Rome is illustrated by his significant declaration, " It is a hundred 
years since Rome has been plundered, and it is richer now than 
ever." 

Though Ferdinand was very loth to part with a general who had 
rendered his cause such eminent service as had Wallenstein, he 
was nevertheless forced to yield to the solicitations and threats of 
the Jesuits and the League, and remove the general from his com- 
mand. Wallenstein obeyed the edict of his master, and surren- 
dering the command of his army, which at this time numbered 
100,000 men, went into retirement on his private estates. A 
large part of his old officers and soldiers withdrew from the Im- 
perial service ; the rest were united to Tilly's army. 



480 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

In his retirement, Wallenstein maintained a court of fabulous 
magnificence. Wherever he went he was followed by an imperial 
train of attendants and equipages. He was reserved and silent, 
but his eye was upon everything going on in Germany, and 
indeed in Europe. He was watching for a favorable moment for 
revenge, and the retrieving of his fortunes. 

Gustavus Adolphus. — The opportunity which Wallenstein, in- 
spired by faith in his star, was so confidently awaiting was not long 
delayed. Only a few months before his dismissal from the Impe- 
rial service, Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, with a veteran 
and enthusiastic army of 16,000 Swedes, had appeared in Northern 
Germany as the champion of the dispirited and leaderless Protes- 
tants. Many and different motives had conspired to lead him 
thus to throw himself into the midst of the struggle. There were 
his strong religious convictions and sympathies ; and there also 
were his ambitions and feelings of revenge. All these, though 
ambition he disclaimed, we may find in his farewell address to his 
Parliament just before embarking upon his enterprise. " Not 
lightly nor wantonly," he says, " am I about to involve myself and 
you in this new and dangerous war. God is my witness that I do 
not fight to gratify my own ambition. But the Emperor has 
wronged me most shamefully in the person of my embassadors. 
He has supported my enemies, persecuted my friends and breth- 
ren, trampled my religion in the dust, and even stretched his 
revengeful arm against my crown. The oppressed states of 
Germany call loudly for aid, which, by God's help, Ave will give 
them." 

All the circumstances of his leave-taking were dramatic. Pre- 
senting to the estates his little daughter Christina, he asked them 
to swear allegiance to her as their future sovereign, should he fall 
in his undertaking. That he would never return he seemed to 
foresee. " Hitherto Providence has wonderfully protected me." 
said he ; " but I shall at last fall in defense of my country. I bid 
you all a sincere — it may be an eternal — farewell." 

Under such circumstances, and with such bold determination, 



THE SIEGE AND SACK OF MAGDEBURG. 4S1 

did Gustavus Adolphus, the " Lion of the North," fling himself with 
his veteran followers upon the southern shore of the Baltic. The 
Emperor and his friends affected to regard the apparition as 
nothing that need cause them any disquietude. "The Snow King 
will melt as he moves southward," was their contemptuous obser- 
vation upon this redoubtable champion of a lost cause. 

The Siege and Sack of Magdeburg (1630).— The Protestant 
princes, through fear of the Emperor, — for their reverses had caused 
them to lose faith in their cause and in themselves, — as well as 
from lack of confidence in the disinterestedness of the motives of 
Gustavus, were shamefully backward in rallying to the support of 
their deliverer, though they were ready enough to profit by any 
embarrassment which his movements might cause the Emperor. 
But through an alliance formed just now with France, the Swedish 
king received a large annual subsidy from that country, which, 
with the help he was receiving from England, made him a formid- 
able antagonist, a fact that the Imperialists themselves soon 
began to recognize. Tilly, who, from the outset, had entertained 
r\a j uster view than most others of the ability and resources of the 
Swedish leader, said, " He is a gamester in playing with whom not 
to have lost is to have won a great deal." 

The wavering, jealous, and unworthy conduct of the Protestant 
princes now led to a most terrible disaster. At this moment Tilly 
was beseiging the city of Magdeburg, which had dared to resist 
the Edict of Restitution. Gustavus asked of the Elector of 
/SaxonyTf^rmission to pass through his dominions, in order that he 
might give quick aid to the beleaguered place, but the Elector 
denied the request. In a short time the city was obliged to sur- 
render, and was given up to sack and pillage. " Here commenced 
a scene of horror," says the historian Schiller, "for which history 
has no language — poetry no pencil. Neither innocent childhood, 
nor helpless old age ; neither youth, sex, rank, nor beauty, could 
disarm the fury of the conqueror. . . . The Croats amused them- 
selves with throwing children into the flames ; Pappenheim's Wal- 
loons, with stabbing infants at the mother's breast. Some officers 



482 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

of the League, horror-struck at this dreadful scene, ventured to 
remind Tilly that he had it in his power to stop the carnage. 
' Return in an hour,' was his answer, ' and I will see what I can 
do ; the soldier must have some reward for his danger and toil.' " 

The town having been fired, 1 all the space within the walls was 
soon glowing like a furnace, forcing the pillagers to give over their 
work of rapine and murder. In a few hours the city was in ashes. 
Nothing was left save two churches and a few hovels. 30,000 
of the inhabitants had perished miserably. Tilly saw in the woful 
scene nothing but the evidence of a glorious victory. He rode 
exultingly through the almost indistinguishable streets, ordered a 
Te Deum to be sung, and wrote to Ferdinand, that since the fall 
of Troy and Jerusalem such a victory had never been seen. " I 
am sincerely sorry," he adds, " that the ladies of your Imperial 
family could not have been present as spectators." 

Success of Gustavus. — The cruel fate of Magdeburg excited 
the alarm of the Protestant princes. The Elector of Saxony now 
at once united his forces with those of the Swedish king. Tilly 
was defeated with great loss in the celebrated battle of Leipsic 
(1631), and Gustavus, emboldened by his success, pushed south- 
ward into the very heart of Germany. Attempting to dispute his 
march, Tilly was again defeated, he himself receiving a fatal 
wound. In the death of Tilly, Ferdinand lost his most trustworthy 
general (1632). Gustavus now entered Munich, the capital of 
Bavaria, without opposition, and took up his temporary residence 
in the palace of Maximilian. 

Wallenstein Restored to Command (1632). — The Imperial 
cause appeared desperate. There was but one man in Germany 
who could turn the tide of victory that was running so strongly in 
favor of the Swedish monarch. That man was Wallenstein, and to 
him the Emperor now turned. This strange man had been watch- 
ing with secret satisfaction the success of the Swedish arms, and 
had even offered to Gustavus his aid, promising "to chase the 
Emperor and the House of Austria over the Alps." But Gustavus 

J This was the work of incendiaries; Tilly was not responsible for it. 



THE ASSASSINATION OF WALLENSTEIN. 483 

and Wallenstein were too profoundly unlike in character for it to 
be possible for them to form an alliance. Furthermore, the ambi- 
tion of each was so great as to exclude that of the other. Neither 
could consent to be second. 

To this proud subject of his, fresh from his dalliances with his 
enemies, the Emperor now appealed for help. Wallenstein agreed 
to raise an army, provided his control of it should be absolute. 
Indeed, his demands of Ferdinand amounted to making himself 
the dictator of Germany. Ferdinand, however, was constrained to 
grant all that his old general demanded. 

Wallenstein now raised his standard, to which rallied the adven- 
turers not only of Germany, but of all Europe as well. The array 
was a vast and heterogeneous host, bound together by no bonds of 
patriotism, loyalty, or convictions, but by the spell and prestige of 
the name of Wallenstein. 

Battle of Liitzen : Death of Gustavus (1632). — With an army 
of 40,000 men obedient to his commands, Wallenstein.now quickly 
drove the Saxons out of Bohemia, which country they had over- 
run, and finally, after numerous marches and countermarches, 
joined the Swedes in a terrible battle on the famous field of Liitzen 
in Saxony. The Swedes won the day, but lost their leader and 
sovereign. Throwing himself into the thick of the fight, Gustavus 
was struck down by a ball. One of the enemy coming up to where 
he lay among a heap of the slain, demanded his name : " I was 
the king of Sweden," replied the dying hero ; whereupon the sol- 
dier shot him dead. 

Thus fell the most noble Gustavus Adolphus. He was, it must 
be admitted, too fond of war, — was over- ambitious of military 
glory ; but he was also unselfishly devoted to his country, and was 
ardently attached to the cause of Protestantism. Beyond all dis- 
pute, his is the most heroic and admirable character with which 
we meet in all the records of the Thirty Years' War. 

The Assassination of Wallenstein (1634). — The Swedish 
Chancellor Oxenstiem persuaded the Swedes to persevere in carry- 
ing out the plans of Gustavus Adolphus. Cardinal Richelieu, who 



4S4 THIRD PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

was thinking only of breaking down the power of the House of 
Austria, promised new subsidies to the Protestants. So the war 
went on, the advantage being for the most part with the Protest- 
ant allies. 

Ferdinand was embarrassed by the suspicious movements of 
his general Wallenstein. There is good reason to believe that he 
was at this moment meditating the betrayal of the Imperial cause. 
He was certainly in communication with the Protestant leaders, 
and the crown of Bohemia had been mentioned as the reward of 
his treachery. But every one was afraid to trust the man who was 
showing himself so untrustworthy. All of these intrigues were, of 
course, carried to the Emperor at Vienna. Ferdinand now secretly 
transferred the command of Wallenstein's forces to another gen- 
eral, and ordered the arrest of the traitor, as he firmly believed 
him to be. But Wallenstein was too formidable an enemy to be 
captured alive, and he was consequently murdered by three 
assassins, who fell upon him unexpectedly in his bed-chamber 

(1634). 
The War Assumes more of a European Character. — Had it 

not been for the selfish and ambitious interference of outside 
powers, the long and woful war which had desolated Germany for 
sixteen years might now have come to an end, for both sides were 
weary of it and ready for negotiations of peace. Indeed, a treaty 
known as the Treaty of Prague was signed by the Emperor and the 
Elector of Saxony in 1635, and afterwards by most of the Protest- 
ant states. It is true that the terms of this treaty were not alto- 
gether satisfactory, yet it probably could and would have been 
made the basis of a permanent peace. But Richelieu was not 
willing that the war should end until the House of Austria was 
completely humbled. Accordingly he encouraged Oxenstiern to 
carry on the war, promising him the aid of the French armies. 

The war thus lost in large part its original character of a con- 
tention between the Catholic and Protestant princes of Germany, 
and became a political struggle between the House of Austria and 
the House of Bourbon, in which the former was fighting for 
existence, the latter for national aggrandizement. 



THE TREATY OF WESTPHALIA. 4S5 

The Treaty of Westphalia (1648). — And so the miserable war 
went on year after year. It had become a heartless and con- 
scienceless struggle for spoils. The Swedes fought to fasten their 
hold upon the mouths of the German rivers ; the French to secure 
their grasp of the Rhine-lands. The earlier actors in the drama 
at length passed from the scene, but their parts were carried on by 
others. Thus, in 1637, Ferdinand II. died, and was succeeded 
by his son Ferdinand III., who fought desperately for the integrity 
of Germany, determined that he should not be known as the 
" Diminisher of the Empire." In 1643 Cardinal Richelieu and 
King Louis XIII. both died, but Mazarin, the minister of Louis 
XIV., continuing the policy of the great Cardinal, kept the French 
forces in the war. 

The year that marks the death of Richelieu heard the first 
whisperings of peace. Everybody was inexpressibly weary of the 
war, and longed for the cessation of its horrors, yet each one 
wanted peace on terms advantageous to himself. The arrange- 
ment of the articles of peace was a matter of infinite difficulty ; for 
the affairs and boundaries of the states of Central Europe were in 
almost hopeless confusion. To facilitate matters, the commis- 
sioners were divided into two bodies, one holding its sessions at 
Osnabruck, and the other at Munster. After five years of memor- 
able discussion and negotiation, the articles of the celebrated 
Treaty of Westphalia, as it was called, were signed by the different 
European powers. 

The chief articles of this important treaty may be made to fall 
under two heads : ( 1 ) those relating to territorial boundaries, and 
(2) those respecting religion. 

As to the first, these cut short in three directions the actual or 
nominal limits of the Holy Roman Empire. Switzerland and the 
United Netherlands were severed from it ; for though both of these 
countries had been for a long time practically independent of the 
Empire, this independence had never been acknowledged in any 
formal way. The claim of France to the three cities of Metz, 
Toul, and Verdun in Lorraine, which places she had held for about 



486 THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

a century, was confirmed, and a great part of Alsace was given to 
her. These were valuable acquisitions to France, and she man- 
aged to maintain her hold upon these territories until our own day. 
Thus on the west, to the southwest, and to the northwest, the Em- 
pire suffered loss. 

Sweden was given cities and territories in Northern Germany 
which gave her control of a long strip of the Baltic shore, a most 
valuable possession. But these lands were not given to the Swed- 
ish king in full sovereignty ; they still remained a part of the Ger- 
manic body, and the king of Sweden as to them became a prince 
of the Empire. 

The changes within the Empire were many, and some of them 
important. Brandenburg especially received considerable addi- 
tions of territory. 

The articles respecting religion were even more important than 
those which established the metes and bounds of the different 
states. Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists were all put upon the 
same footing. The Protestants were to retain all the benefices 
and Church property of which they had possession in 1624. Every 
prince was to have the right to make his religion the religion of 
his people, and to banish all who refused to adopt the established 
creed ; but such non-conformists were to have three years in which 
to emigrate. Not any of the Protestant governments, it should be 
added, ever exercised this right. 

The different states of the Empire were left almost independent 
of the Emperor. They were given the right to form alliances with 
one another and with foreign princes ; but not, of course, against 
the Empire or Emperor. This provision made Germany nothing 
more than a lax confederation, and postponed to a distant future 
the nationalization of the German states. 

These were some of the most important provisions of the noted 
Treaty of Westphalia. They were very far from being satisfactory 
to most of the parties concerned ; but they were, perhaps, as 
nearly so as could well be expected, considering the terribly con- 
fused condition into which the long struggle had brought all the 
affairs of Europe. 



EFFECTS OF THE WAR UPON GERMANY. 487 

Effects of the War upon Germany. — It is simply impossible 
to picture the wretched condition in which the Thirty Years' War 
left Germany. When the struggle began, the population of the 
country was 30,000,000; when it ended, 12,000,000. Many of 
the once large and nourishing cities were reduced to "mere shells." 
Two or three hundred ill-clad persons constituted the population 
of Berlin. The duchy of Wurtemburg, which had half a million 
of inhabitants at the commencement of the war, at its close had 
barely 50,000. The once powerful Hanseatic League was virtually 
broken up, because the towns composing it had become unable 
to pay the expenses of the Union. On every hand were the 
charred remains of the hovels of the peasants and the palaces of 
the nobility. Vast districts lay waste without an inhabitant. The 
lines of commerce were broken, and some trades and industries 
swept quite out of existence. 

The effects upon the fine arts, upon science, learning, and 
morals were even more lamentable. Painting, sculpture, and archi- 
tecture were driven out of the land. The cities which had been 
the home of all these arts lay in ruins. Poetry ceased to be culti- 
vated. Education was entirely neglected. For the lifetime of a 
generation, men had been engaged in the business of war, and had 
allowed their children to grow up in absolute ignorance. Moral 
law was forgotten. Vice, nourished by the licentious atmosphere 
of the camp, reigned supreme. " God, worship, religion, became 
only a tradition. ... In character, in intelligence, and in morality, 
the German people were set back two hundred years." — Taylor. 

Thus civilization in Germany, which had begun to develop with 
so much promise, received a shock from which it did not begin to 
recover, so benumbed were the very senses of men, for many long 
years. "A gulf of thirty years," says Baring-Gould, "stood be- 
tween the old civilization and the new era. Everything had to be 
reconquered, on every field. Everywhere lay only ruins ; and it 
was not till more than thirty years later that the heart came back 
to men to set up again the fallen stones." 

To all these evils were added those of political disunion and 



4SS THIRD PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

weakness. The title of Emperor still continued to be borne by 
a member of the House of Austria, but it was only an empty name. 
By the Peace of Westphalia, the Germanic body lost even that 
little cohesion which had begun to manifest itself between its 
different parts, and became simply a loose assemblage of virtually 
independent states, of which there were now 203. Thus weak- 
ened, Germany lost her independence as a nation, while the subjects 
of the numerous petty states became the slaves of their ambitious 
and tyrannical rulers. And worse than all, the overwhelming 
calamities that for the lifetime of a generation had been poured 
out upon the unfortunate land, had extinguished the last spark of 
German patriotism. Every sentiment of pride and hope in race 
and country seemed to have become extinct. 

Conclusion. — The Treaty of Westphalia is a prominent land- 
mark in universal history. It stands at the dividing line of two 
great epochs. It marks the end of the Reformation Era and the 
beginning of that of the Political Revolution. Henceforth men 
will fight for constitutions, not creeds. We shall not often see one 
nation attacking another, or one party in a nation assaulting an- 
other party, on account of a difference in religious opinion. 1 

But in setting the Peace of Westphalia to mark the end of the 
Era of the Reformation, we do not mean to convey the idea that 
the work of the Protestant Revolution, in the direction of relig- 
ious toleration, was done. As a matter of fact, no real toleration 
had yet been reached, — nothing save the semblance of toleration. 
The long conflict of a century and more, and the vicissitudes of 
fortune, which to-day gave one party the power of the persecutor, 
and to-morrow made the same sect the victims of persecution, had 
simply forced all to the practical conclusion that they must tolerate 
one another, — that one sect must not attempt to put another 
down by force. But it required the broadening and liberalizing 

1 The Puritan Revolution in England may look like a religious war, but we 
shall learn that it was primarily a political contest, — a struggle against des- 
potism in the State. 



CONCLUSION 489 

lessons of another full century to bring men to see that the thing 
they must do is the very thing they ought to do, — to make men 
tolerant not only in outward conduct, but in spirit. 

\Yith this single word of caution, we now pass to the study of 
the Era of the Political Revolution, the period marked by the 
struggle between despotic and liberal principles of government. 
And first, we shall give a sketch of absolute monarchy as it ex- 
hibited itself in France under the autocrat Louis XIV. 



FOURTH PERIOD. — THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL 
REVOLUTION. 

(FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, IN 1648, TO THE PRESENT TIME.) 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE UNDER THE ABSOLUTE 
GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV. (1643-17 15). 

The Divine Right of Kings. — Louis XIV. stands as the repre- 
sentative of absolute monarchy. This indeed was no new thing in 
the world, but Louis was such an ideal autocrat that somehow he 
made autocratic government strangely attractive. Other kings 
imitated him, and it became the prevailing theory of government 
that kings have a " divine right " to rule, and that the people 
should have no part at all in government. 

According to this theory, the nation is a great family with the 
king as its divinely appointed head. The duty of the king is to 
govern like a father ; the duty of the people is to obey their king 
even as children obey their parents. If the king does wrong, is 
harsh, cruel, unjust, this is simply the misfortune of his people : 
under no circumstances is it right for them to rebel against his 
authority, any more than for children to rise against their father. 
The king is responsible to God alone, and to God the people, 
quietly submissive, must leave the avenging of all their wrongs. 

Before the close of the period upon which we here enter, we 
shall see how this theory of the divine right of kings worked out 
in practice, — how dear it cost both kings and people, and how 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF MAZARIN. I'>| 

the people by the strong logic of Revolution demonstrated that 
they are not children, but mature men, and have a divine and 
inalienable right to govern themselves. 

The Basis of Louis XIV.s Power. — The basis of the absolute 
power of Louis XIV. was laid by Cardinal Richelieu during the 
reign of Louis XIII. Besides crushing the political power of 
the Huguenots, and thereby vastly augmenting the security and 
strength of the royal authority, the Cardinal succeeded, by various 
means, — by annulling their privileges, by banishment, confisca- 
tions, and executions, — in almost extinguishing the expiring inde- 
pendence of the old feudal aristocracy, and in forcing the once 
haughty and refractory nobles to yield humble obedience to the 
crown. 

In 1643, barely six months after the death of his great minister, 
Louis XIII. died, leaving the vast power which the Cardinal had 
done so much to consolidate, as an inheritance to his little son, a 
child of five years. 

The Administration of Mazarin. — During the minority of 
Louis the government was in the hands of his mother, Anne of 
Austria, as regent. She chose as her prime minister an Italian 
ecclesiastic, Cardinal Mazarin, who in his administration of affairs 
followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Richelieu, carrying 
out with great ability the comprehensive policy of that minister. 
France was encouraged to maintain her part — and a very glorious 
part it was, as war goes — in the Thirty Years' War, until Austria 
was completely exhausted, and all Germany indeed almost ruined. 
Even after the Peace of Westphalia, which simply concluded the 
war in Germany, France carried on the war with Spain for ten 
years longer, until 1659, when the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which 
gave the French the two provinces of Artois and Roussillon, as- 
serted the triumph of France over Spain. Richelieu's plan had at 
last, though at terrible cost to France l and all Europe, been crowne* 1 

1 The heavy taxes laid to meet the expenses of the wars created great dis- 
content, which during the struggle with Spain led to a series of conspiracies or 
revolts against the government, known as the Wars of the Fronde (1648- 



492 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

with success. The House of Austria in both its branches had 
been humiliated and crippled, and the House of Bourbon was 
ready to assume the lead in European affairs. 

Louis XIV. assumes the Government. — Cardinal Mazarin 
died in 1661. Upon this event, Louis, who was now twenty-three 
years of age, called together the heads of the various departments 
of the government, and directing his words to the Chancellor, 
said : " I have summoned you, with my ministers and secretaries 
of State, to tell you that it has pleased me hitherto to permit my 
affairs to be governed by the late Cardinal ; I shall in future be my 
own prime minister." He then charged the several secretaries to 
sign no papers without his order. 

For more than half a century Louis ruled France as an absolute 
and irresponsible monarch. He regarded France as his private 
estate, and seemed to be fully convinced that he had a divine 
commission to govern the French people. He was accustomed to 
declare, LEtat, c'est moi, " I am the State," meaning that he 
alone was the rightful legislator, judge, and executive of the French 
nation. The States- General was not once convened during his 
long reign. Richelieu made Louis XIII. "the first man in Europe, 
but the second in his own kingdom." Louis XIV. was the first 
man at home as well as abroad. He had able men about him ; 
but they served instead of ruling him. 

Colbert. — Mazarin when dying said to Louis, " Sire, I owe every- 
thing to you ; but I pay my debt to your majesty by giving you 
Colbert." During the first ten or twelve years of Louis's personal 
reign, this extraordinary man inspired and directed everything ; but 
he carefully avoided the appearance of doing so. His maxim 
seemed to be, Mine the labor, thine the praise. He did for the 
domestic affairs of France what Richelieu had done for the foreign. 

1652). "Notwithstanding its peculiar character of levity and burlesque, the 
Fronde must be regarded as a memorable struggle of the aristocracy, supported 
by the judicial and municipal bodies, to control the despotism of the crown. 
... It failed; . . . nor was any farther effort made to resuscitate the dormant 
liberties of the nation until the dawning of the great Revolution." 



THE WARS OF LOUIS XIV. 493 

He was made controller-general of the finances, and in this posi- 
tion was supreme from 1661 to 1672, which period was, according 
to the historian Martin, the most glorious in the financial history 
of France. 

But it was not alone in the department of the finances that the 
influence of Colbert was felt. Through his efforts everything was 
reformed, — the administration of justice, agriculture, industries, 
and trade. Feudal and revenue abuses were corrected. " He 
compressed the labor of centuries into a few years." 

So long as Louis followed the policy of Colbert, he gave France 
a truly glorious reign : but unfortunately he soon turned aside from 
the great minister's policy of peace, to seek glory for himself and 
greatness for France through new and unjust encroachments upon 
neighboring nations. And Louis not only disregarded the wise 
counsels of Colbert, but treated him with great ingratitude. The 
dying words of the unhappy minister were strangely like those of 
Cardinal Wolsey of England : " If j had done for God what I have 
done for this man," he said, " I should be saved ten times over ; 
and now I know not what will become of me." 

The Wars of Louis XIV. — During the period of his personal 
administration of the government, Louis XIV. was engaged in four 
great wars : (1) A war respecting the Spanish Netherlands (1667- 
1668) ; (2) a war with Holland (1672-1678) ; (3) the War of 
the Palatinate (1689-169 7) ; and (4) the War of the Spanish 
Succession (1 701-17 14). 

All these wars were, on the part of the French monarch, wars of 
conquest and aggression, or were wars provoked by his ambitious 
and encroaching policy. The most inveterate enemy of Louis 
during all this period was Holland, the representative and cham- 
pion of liberal, constitutional government. 

The War concerning- the Spanish Netherlands (166 7- 1668). — 
At the end of the war carried on against Spain by Mazarin, the 
Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) was cemented by the betrothal of 
Maria Theresa, the Spanish Infanta, to Louis XIV., who promised 
never to lay claim to any part of the Spanish possessions in right 



494 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

of the princess. But upon the death of Philip IV. of Spain (1665), 
Louis immediately claimed, in the name of his wife, portions of 
the Spanish Netherlands, justifying his pretensions mainly on the 
ground that his wife's dowry had never been paid, and, conse- 
quently, that the renunciation which at the time of her betrothal 
she made of her rights in the Netherlands was null and void. 

To make good his claims, Louis led an army into the Spanish 
Netherlands. The Hollanders were naturally alarmed, fearing that 
Louis would also want to annex their country to his dominions. 
Accordingly they effected what was called the Triple Alliance 
with England and Sweden, checked the French king in his career 
of conquest, and, by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668, forced 
him to give up much of the territory he had seized. He retained, 
however, a number of the Flemish towns along the French frontier, 
which he made by extensive fortifications the strong outposts of 
his kingdom in that direction. 

The War with Holland (1672-1678). — The second war of the 
French king was against Holland, whose interference with his plans 
in the Spanish Netherlands, as well as some uncomplimentary re- 
marks of the Dutch humorists on his personal appearance, had 
stirred his resentment. Before entering upon the undertaking 
which had proved too great for Philip II. with the resources of two 
worlds at his command, Louis, by means of bribes and the em- 
ployment of that skilful diplomacy of which he was so perfect a 
master, prudently drew from the side of Holland both her allies 
(Sweden and England), even inducing the English king, Charles 
II., to lend him active assistance. Money also secured the aid of 
several of the princes of Germany. 

Thus the little commonwealth was left alone to contend against 
fearful odds. But the heroic people whose fathers had resisted for 
forty years the veteran armies of the strongest monarch in Christen- 
dom, were not to be daunted by even the formidable coalition now 
formed against them. 

Louis crossed the frontiers of the Republic with an army of 
more than 100,000 men, headed by the greatest commanders of 



THE WAR ir/V// HOLLAND. -195 

the age, — Conde, Turenne, and Vauban. In a few days three 
of the United Provinces — Utrecht, Gelderland. and Overyssel — 
were in his hands. Counsels were now divided. One party, 
headed by the celebrated De Witts, advised peace j another party 
led by a worthy descendant of the great William the Silent, the 
brave young Prince of Orange, William III., — afterwards king of 
England, — declared for resistance "to the last ditch." The De 
Witts were killed in a popular tumult, and the Prince was clothed 
with almost dictatorial power, under the title of stadtholder. 

The brave Hollanders now girded themselves for a stout defense 
of what yet remained to them. It was even seriously proposed in 
the States-General, that, rather than submit to the tyranny of this 
second Philip, they should carry into execution what was always in 
the mind of their fathers as a last desperate resort during all their 
long struggle with the Spanish despot, — namely, open the dykes, 
bury the country and its invaders beneath the ocean, and taking 
their families and household goods in their ships, seek new homes 
in lands beyond the sea. 

The desperate resolve was in part executed ; for with the French 
threatening Amsterdam, the dykes were cut, and all the surround- 
ing fields were laid under water, and the invaders thus forced to 
retreat. 

The heroic resistance to the intruders made by the Hollanders 
in their half-drowned land, the havoc wrought by the stout Dutch 
sailors among the fleets of the allies, and the diplomacy of the 
Dutch statesmen, who, through skilful negotiations, detached al- 
most all the allies of the French from that side, and brought them 
into alliance with the Republic, — all these things soon put a very 
different face upon affairs, and Louis found himself confronted by 
the armies of half of Europe. 

For several years the war now went on by land and sea, — in the 
Netherlands, all along the Rhine, upon the English Channel in 
the Mediterranean, and on the coasts of the New World. Finally 
an end was put to the struggle by the Treaty of Nimeguen (1678). 
Louis gave up his conquests in Holland,, but kept a large number of 



496 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

towns and fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, besides the 
province of Franche-Comte and several Imperial cities on his 
German frontier. 

Louis is called " Great." — Thus Louis came out of this tremen- 
dous struggle, in which half of Europe was leagued against him, 
with enhanced reputation and fresh acquisitions of territory. Peo- 
ple began to call him the Grand Monarch ; and, as if to justify 
their judgment in conferring upon him this title of Great, he 
seized the free city of Strasburg and other places along his Rhenish 
frontier, made a most wanton attack upon Genoa, quarreled with 
Spain, confiscated some of the possessions of the Pope, and de- 
ported himself generally in that overbearing, insolent, and intoler- 
ant manner which is the prerogative of titled greatness. 

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). — Louis now 
committed an act the injustice of which was only equalled by its 
folly, — an act from which may be dated the decline of his power. 
This was the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the well-known de- 
cree by which Henry IV. secured religious freedom to the French 
Protestants. It seems strange that two of the worst crimes of 
French history should have been instigated by women ; for, as to 
the name of Catherine de Medici will ever attach the infamy of 
St. Bartholomew, so to that of Madame de Maintenon l will ever 
cling the shame of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 

By this cruel measure all the Protestant churches were closed, 
and every Huguenot who refused to embrace the Roman Catholic 
faith was outlawed. The terrible persecution that now fell upon 
the unfortunate Huguenots is known as the Dragonnades, from 
the circumstance that dragoons were quartered upon the Protes- 
tant families, with full permission to annoy and persecute them 
in every way " short of violation and death," to the end that the 
victims of these outrages might be constrained to recant, which 
multitudes did. 

Under the fierce persecutions of the Dragonnades, probably 

1 The second wife of Louis XIV., who persuaded the king to the act of 
which we are speaking. 



THE WAR OF THE PALATINATE, 497 

as many as three hundred thousand of the most skilful and indus- 
trious of the subjects of Louis were driven out of the kingdom. 
Several of the most important and flourishing of the French indus- 
tries were ruined, while the manufacturing interests of other countries, 
particularly those of Holland and England, were correspondingly 
benefited by the energy, skill, and capital which the exiles carried 
to them. Many of the fugitive Huguenots found ultimately a 
refuge in America ; and no other class of emigrants, save the Puri- 
tans of England, cast 

" Such healthful leaven 'mid the elements 
That peopled the new world." * 

The War of the Palatinate (1689-1697). — The indirect 
results of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes were quite as 
calamitous to France as were the direct results. The indignation 
that the barbarous measure awakened among the Protestant 
nations of Europe enabled William of Orange to organize a for- 
midable confederacy against Louis, known as the League of Augs- 
burg (1686). England did not immediately become a member 
of the League (notwithstanding the Protestants of that country were 
filled with resentment towards Louis), for the reason that the Eng- 
lish throne was at this time held by James II., whose notions of 
the divine right of kings naturally led him to seek the friendship 
and alliance of the Grand Monarch. But a little later (in 1688) 
came the Revolution which drove James out of England, and 
placed that kingdom in the hands of the Prince of Orange. Eng- 
land was thus drawn away from the side of the French king, and 
added to the enemies of Louis. 

Louis now resolved to attack the confederates of Augsburg. 
Seeking a pretext for beginning hostilities, he laid claim, in the 
name of his sister-in-law, to portions of the Palatinate, and hurried 
a large army into the country, which was quickly overrun. But 
being unable to hold the conquests he had made, Louis ordered 
that the country be turned into a desert. The Huns of an Attila 
could not have carried out more relentlessly the barbarous command 
1 See Baird, History of Huguenot Emigration to America. 



49S FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

than did the soldiers of Louis. Churches and abbeys, palaces and 
cottages, villas and cities, were all given to the flames. Among 
the places laid in ruins were the historic towns of Heidelberg, 
Spires, and Worms. Even fruit-trees, vines, and crops were de- 
stroyed. " The houseless peasants, to the number of a hundred 
thousand, wandered about in abject misery, imprecating the ven- 
geance of Heaven upon the heartless tyrant who had caused their 
ruin." 

This barbarous act of Louis almost frenzied Germany. Another 
*and more formidable coalition, known as the " Grand Alliance," 
was now formed (1689) . It embraced England, Holland, Sweden, 
Spain, the German Emperor, the Elector Palatine, and the Electors 
of Bavaria and Saxony. 

For ten years almost all Europe was a great battle-field. It was 
very much such a struggle as that waged a century later by the 
allied monarchies of Europe against Napoleon, when they fought 
for the independence of the continent. 

Both sides at length becoming weary of the contest and almost 
exhausted in resources, the struggle was closed by the Treaty of 
Ryswick (1697). There was a mutual surrender of conquests 
made during the course of the war, and Louis had also to give up 
some of the places he had unjustly seized before the beginning of 
the conflict. He managed, however, to retain the important city 
of Strasburg. 

War of the Spanish Succession (1 701-17 14). — Barely three 
years passed after the Treaty of Ryswick before the great powers 
of Europe were involved in another war, known as the War of the 
Spanish Succession. 

The circumstances out of which the war grew were these : In 
1700 the king of Spain, Charles II., died, leaving his crown — the 
disposition of which had been made a matter of much discussion 
and diplomacy among the European courts, for Charles was child- 
less — to Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. " There are 
no longer any Pyrenees," was Louis's exultant epigram, meaning 
of course that France and Spain were now practically one. 



DEATH OF THE KING. 4W 

England and Holland particularly were alarmed at this virtual 
consolidation of these two powerful nations. Moreover, the Ger- 
man Emperor Leopold I. claimed the Spanish crown for his second 
son Charles, Archduke of Austria. Consequently a second Grand 
Alliance was soon formed against France, the object of which was 
to dethrone Philip of Anjou and place upon the Spanish throne 
the Archduke Charles. The two greatest generals of the allies 
were the famous Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill), the ablest 
commander, except Wellington perhaps, that England has ever 
produced, and the hardly less noted Prince Eugene of Savoy. 

For thirteen years all Europe was shaken with war. During the 
progress of the struggle were fought some of the most memorable 
battles in European history, — Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, 
and Malplaquet, — in all of which the genius of Marlborough and 
the consummate skill of Prince Eugene won splendid victories for 
the allies. 

Finally, changes wrought by death in the House of Austria 
brought the war to a close. In 1705 the Emperor Leopold died, 
and his son Joseph came to the Imperial throne. Six years later 
(in 1 711) he also died, and his brother, the Archduke Charles, 
was elected Emperor. This changed the whole aspect of the 
Spanish question, for now to place Charles upon the Spanish throne 
would be to give him a dangerous preponderance of power, would 
be, in fact, to re-establish the great monarchy of Charles V. 
Consequently the Grand Alliance falls to pieces, and the war is 
ended by the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastadt (1714). 

By the provisions of these treaties the Bourbon prince of Anjou 
was left upon the Spanish throne, but his kingdom was pared away 
on every side. Gibraltar and the island of Minorca were ceded to 
England ; while Milan, Naples, Sardinia, and the Netherlands 
(Spanish) were given to Austria. France was forced to surrender to 
England considerable portions of her possessions in the New World, 
— Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the Hudson Bay territory. 

Death of the King. — Amidst troubles, perplexities, and afflic- 
tions, Louis XIV.'s long and eventful reign was now drawing to a 



500 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

close. The heavy and constant taxes necessary to meet the ex- 
penses of his numerous wars, to maintain an extravagant court, 
and to furnish means for the erection of costly palaces and vari- 
ous public buildings, had bankrupted the country, and the cries of 
his wretched subjects, clamoring for bread, could not be shut out 
of the royal chamber. Death, too, had invaded the palace, striking 
down the dauphin, the dauphiness, and two grandsons of Louis, 
leaving as the nearest heir to the throne his great-grandson, a mere 
child. On the morning of September ist, 1715, the Grand Mon- 
arch breathed his last, bequeathing to this boy of five years a 
kingdom overwhelmed with debt, and filled with misery, with 
threatening vices and dangerous discontent. He seemed at the 
last moment to be sensible of the mistakes and faults of his reign, 
for his dying charge to the little prince who was to succeed him 
was as follows : " My child, you are about to become a great 
king ; do not imitate me either in my taste for building or in my 
love of war. Endeavor on the contrary to live in peace with the 
neighboring nations. . . . Strive also to relieve the burdens of 
your people, which I myself have been unable to do." 

The Court of Louis XIV. — History is becoming less and less 
the history of Courts, and more and more the history of Peoples ; 
but, as the historian Martin says, under Louis XIV. France was 
absorbed in the Court and the Court in the King, so that to com- 
prehend the age, we must stand on the steps of the throne. 

The Court sustained by the Grand Monarch was the most extrav- 
agantly magnificent that Europe has ever seen. Never since Nero 
spread his Golden House over the burnt district of Rome, and 
ensconcing himself amid its luxurious appointments, exclaimed, 
" Now I am housed as a man ought to be." had prince or king so 
ostentatiously lavished upon himself the wealth of an empire. 
Louis had half a dozen palaces, the most costly of which was that 
at Versailles. Upon this and its surroundings he spent fabulous 
sums. The palace itself cost what would probably be equal to 
more than $100,000,000 with us. Here were gathered the beauty, 
wit, and learning of France. The royal household numbered 



LITERATURE UNDER LOUIS XIV. 501 

fifteen thousand persons, all living in costly and luxurious idleness 
at the expense of the people. 

One element of this enormous family was the great lords of the 
old feudal aristocracy. Dispossessed of their ancient power and 
wealth, they were content now to fill a place in the royal household, to 
be the kings pensioners and the elegant embellishment of his Court. 
" A military staff on a furlough for a century or more, around a 
commander-in-chief, who gives fashionable entertainments, is," 
says Taine, " the principle and summary of the habits of society 
under the ancient regime" 

These grandees were ostensibly the servants of the monarch, the 
domestics of his household. They assisted him in making his toi- 
let in the morning and in disrobing at night ; for, unless through 
accident or inadvertence, Louis never went to bed or arose save 
in the presence of a crowd of courtiers, great lords, officials of the 
kingdom, and foreign ambassadors. 

But while we find in Louis's Court all the forms of chivalry, the 
real spirit of chivalry was entirely lacking ; men simply played their 
parts. " The greater part of the reign," says Anguetil, " may be 
considered as a spectacle with grand machinery, calculated to 
excite astonishment." Bolingbroke expressed the same thing in 
the sententious remark that Louis was " the best actor of Majesty 
that ever filled a throne." 

And the life of the Court besides being artificial was corrupt. 
Vice, however, was gilded. The scandalous immoralities of king 
and courtiers were made attractive by the glitter of superficial 
accomplishment and by exquisite suavity and polish of manner. 

But notwithstanding its insincerity and immorality, the brilliancy 
of the Court of Louis dazzled all Europe. The neighboring courts 
imitated its manners and emulated its extravagances. In all mat- 
ters of taste and fashion France gave laws to the continent, and 
the French language became the court language of the civilized 
world. 

literature under Louis XIV, — Although Louis himself was not 
much of a scholar, he gave a most liberal encouragement to men of 



502 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

letters, thereby making his reign the Augustan Age of French liter- 
ature. In this patronage Louis was not unselfish. He honored 
and befriended poets and writers of every class, because thus he 
extended the reputation of his court. These writers, pensioners 
of his bounty, filled all Europe with their praises of the Great King, 
and thus made the most ample and grateful return to Louis for his 
favor and liberality. 

Almost every species of literature was cultivated by the French 
writers of this era, yet it was in the province of the Drama that the 
most eminent names appeared. The three great names here are 
those of Corneille (i 606-1 684), Racine (1639-1699), and Moliere 
(1622-1673). "The stage on which Corneille, Moliere, and Ra- 
cine shone at once," writes Martin, " blazed with a glory without 
parallel in the modern world and in Roman antiquity ; we must go 
back to the best days of Athens to find thus, flourishing together, 
the two principal forms of the dramatic art." 

Corneille and Racine were writers of tragedy, Moliere of comedy. 
Racine has been ranked by Hallam with Shakespeare, and Corneille 
is called the " Father of French Tragedy." 

Moliere was the imitator of the Greek Aristophanes and the 
Latin Plautus and Terence. With satire and raillery never sur- 
passed in power and piquancy, he attacked the vices of the times, 
especially ridiculing the foibles and extravagances of the nobility, 
making them the butt of the people. " His was the work of 
Richelieu continued with new weapons." l 

1 In the eighteenth century French literature, which had attained a wonder- 
ful elegance, polish, and grace, was pressed into the service of philosophy. 
The thinkers and theorists of the age who had ideas on government, religion, 
or society which they desired to promulgate, were not content to let their 
thoughts go before the world in plain attire, but they must needs labor to 
drape them in the most beautiful and seductive garb of expression and style. 
One of the chief vices of this philosophy was the impracticable character of its 
theories — a vice attributed by Guizot to the absolute monarchy, which shut 
out from participation in the affairs of government all men of ability. The 
best theorizers are always men of large experience in practical matters. The 
mischief this philosophy wrought will be noticed by us in a subsequent chap- 
ter, when we come to speak of the causes of the French Revolution. 



DECLINE OE THE FRENCH MONARCHY, EEC. 503 

Decline of the French Monarchy under Louis XV. — The 
ascendency of the House of Bourbon passed away forever with 
Louis XIV. In passing from the reign of the Grand Monarch to 
that of his successor, Louis XV. (i 715-1774), we pass from the 
strongest and most brilliant reign in French history to the weakest 
and most humiliating. Without possessing any of those virtues 
which often redeem the odious measures of despotism, Louis XV. 
was a high-handed tyrant. During his reign the French nation 
made a swift descent towards the abyss of the Revolution of 1 789. 

France took part, but usually with injury to her military reputa- 
tion, in all the wars of this period. The most important of these 
were the War of the Austrian Succession (1 740-1 748), which 
struggle brought into sudden prominence the rising state of Prussia ; 
and the Seven Years' War (175 6-1 763), known in America as the 
French and Indian War, which resulted in the loss to France of 
Canada in the New World and of her Indian possessions in the 
Old. 

Though thus shorn of her colonial possessions in all quarters of 
the globe, France managed to hold in Europe the provinces won 
for her by the wars and diplomacy of Louis XIV., and even made 
some fresh acquisitions of territory along the Rhenish frontier, be- 
sides gaining the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean, the 
destined birthplace of one who was soon to have much to do in 
shaping the destinies of France. 

But taken all together, the period was one of great national 
humiliation : the French fleet was almost driven from the sea ; 
the martial spirit of the nation visibly declined ; and France, from 
the foremost place among the states of Europe, fell to the position 
of a third or fourth rate power. 



504 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER II. 

ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS: THE ENGLISH REVOLU- 
TION (i 603-1 7 14). 

I. The First Two Stuarts. 
1. Reign of James the First (1 603-1 625). 

Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland. — The acces- 
sion of the Stuart line brought England and Scotland under the 
same sovereign, though each country still retained its own parlia- 
ment. James was the first to bear the title of " King of Great 
Britain." 1 The union of the two countries was symbolized by a 
new flag, upon which were blended the crosses of St. George and 
St. Andrew, the former the patron saint of England and the latter 
of Scotland. 

The King. — There was nothing royal in James's person or 
demeanor. An unfortunate weakness in his limbs gave him an 
awkward, shambling gait. He was equally weak in character, for 
which fault he was more responsible. He was conceited and 
obstinate, and was charged with drunkenness and buffoonery. 
He affected authorship, and wrote several books, one on witch- 
craft, in which he believed, and another on the use of tobacco, 
— just introduced by Raleigh, — in which he did not believe. 
The sycophants of his court called him the " British Solomon," 
which drew from the French Duke of Sully the retort that he was 
the "wisest fool in Europe." 

1 His full title was "King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland." 



THE "DIVINE EIGHT" OE KINGS, ETC. 505 

He was constitutionally a coward, and would tremble at the 
sight of a drawn sword. His clothes were thickly padded as a 
precaution against assassination. This disposition inclined him to a 
peace policy, so that the history of his reign is signalized by no 
important wars. It also, in connection with his general femininity, 
earned for him the title of " Queen James," while his predecessor 
was alluded to as " King Elizabeth." 

The "Divine Eight" of Kings and the "Royal Touch." — 
James was a firm believer in the doctrine of the " divine right " of 
kings. He held that hereditary princes are the Lord's anointed, 
and that their authority can in no way be questioned or limited by 
people, priest, or parliament. His own words were, " As it is 
atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do, so it is high 
contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can do, or to say that 
the king cannot do this or that." 

This doctrine found much support in the popular superstition of 
the " Royal Touch." The king was believed to possess the 
power — a gift transmitted through the royal line of England from 
Edward the. Confessor — of healing scrofulous persons by the lay- 
ing on of hands. 1 James's brother Charles is said to have touched 
100,000 persons during his reign. The testimony as to the genu- 
ineness of the cures effected is often very strong and seemingly 
unimpeachable. 

It is the bearing of this strange superstition upon the doctrine 
of the divine right of kings that concerns us now. " The political 
importance of this superstition," observes Lecky, " is very mani- 
fest. Educated laymen might deride it, but in the eyes of the 
English poor it was a visible, palpable attestation of the indefeasi- 
ble sanctity of the royal line. It placed the sovereignty entirely 
apart from the categories of mere human institutions." 2 

By bearing in mind this superstition, it will be easier for us to 

1 Consult Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. I. 
p. 73. The French kings were also supposed to possess the same miraculous 
power, inherited, as most believed, from Louis the Saint. 

2 Ibid., Vol. I. p. 77. 



506 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

understand how so large a proportion of the people of England 
could support the Stuarts in their extravagant claims, and could 
sincerely maintain the doctrine of the sinfulness of resistance to the 
king. 

Arabella Stuart: Sir Walter Raleigh. — The very first year of 
James's reign was disturbed by an attempt to place his cousin 
Arabella Stuart upon the throne. We notice the matter here only 
because the affair involved the fate of one of the great men whose 
career began under Elizabeth. This was Sir Walter Raleigh, who, 
on the unproved charge of having taken part in the conspiracy, 
was unjustly sentenced to die, but was reprieved and sent to the 
Tower, where he remained a prisoner for thirteen years. For the 
tedium of his long confinement he found relief in the composition 
of his History of the World} 

The Gunpowder Plot (1605). — In the third year of James's 
reign was unearthed one of the most fiendish plots imaginable. 
This was nothing less than a plan to blow up with gunpowder the 
Parliament Building, upon the opening day of the Session, when 
king, lords, and commons would all be present, and thus to 
destroy at a single blow every branch of the English Government. 

1 Raleigh was finally set at liberty, but not pardoned. There was much of 
the romantic and adventurous in his nature, and he now proposed to mend his 
broken fortunes by imitating the undertakings of Cortez and Pizarro. One of 
his dreams was, that somewhere in South America there existed a sort of El 
Dorado, and he fitted out an expedition at his own expense to search for it. 
The expedition was very unfortunate. It sailed far up the great river Orinoco, 
but found nothing corresponding to Raleigh's dream, and did nothing save 
capture and burn a little Spanish settlement. For this act the Spanish court 
demanded, upon Raleigh's return to England, that he be punished as a pirate. 
James yielded to the demands of Spanish vengeance, and Raleigh was con- 
demned to die, not, however, on the charge of piracy, but on the old charge 
for which he had suffered the long imprisonment. The old warrior's calmness 
was not disturbed by the near approach of death. When on the scaffold, he 
lifted the ax, and feeling the edge with his thumb, said, " This is a sharp medi- 
cine, but it will cure all diseases " (1618). 

Such was the unworthy fate of Sir Walter Raleigh, who, notwithstanding all 
his faults, must be numbered among England's most illustrious sons. 



COLONIES AND TRADE SETTLEMENTS. 507 

This conspiracy, known as the Gunpowder Plot, was entered 
into by some Roman Catholics, because they were disappointed in 
the course which the king had taken as regards their religion. 
The leader of the conspiracy was Guy Fawkes. Thirty-six barrels 
of gunpowder were secreted in one of the cellars beneath the 
chamber occupied by the lords, and then the conspirators quietly 
awaited the assembling of Parliament. 

The timely discovery of the plot was brought about by means of 
a letter of warning from one of the conspirators to a Catholic lord 
(his brother-in-law), begging him to absent himself from the open- 
ing of Parliament. " God and man," ran the mysterious message, 
" have concurred to punish the wickedness of this time ; . . . for, 
though there be no appearance of any stir, yet, I say, they will 
receive a terrible blow this Parliament, and yet they shall not see 
who hurts them." 

The closing lines of the letter awakened a suspicion as to the 
nature of the plot ; the vaults beneath the Parliament House were 
searched, and the terrible secret was discovered. Fawkes, who 
was keeping watch of the cellar, was arrested, and after being put 
to the rack, was executed. His chief accomplices were also seized 
and punished. The alarm created by the terrible plot led 
Parliament to enact some very severe laws against the Roman 
Catholics. 

Colonies and Trade Settlements. — The reign of James I. is 
signalized by the commencement of that system of colonization 
which has resulted in the establishment of the English race in 
almost every quarter of the globe. 

In the year 1607 Jamestown, so named in honor of the king, 
was founded in Virginia. This was the first permanent English 
settlement within the limits of the United States. In 1620 some 
Separatists, or Pilgrims, who had found in Holland a temporary 
refuge from persecution, pushed across the Atlantic, and amidst 
heroic sufferings and hardships established the first settlement in 
New England, and laid the foundations of civil and religious liberty 
in the New World. 



508 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Besides planting these settlements in the New World, the Eng- 
lish during this same reign established themselves in the ancient 
country of India. In 1612 the East India Company, which had 
been chartered by Elizabeth in 1600, established their first factory 
at Surat. This was the humble beginning of the gigantic English 
Empire in the East. 

In this connection must also be noticed the Plantation of Ulster 
in Ireland. The northern part of that island having been deso- 
lated by the Tyrone Rebellion, and large tracts of land having 
been forfeited to the English crown, this land was now given by 
royal grant to English and Scotch settlers. Some of the Celtic 
clans were removed bodily, and assigned lands in other parts of 
the island. Thus all this portion of the country became thoroughly 
Anglicized. The injustice and harshness of the treatment they 
received — which was very like the treatment of the Indians in the 
New World at the hands of the colonists there — awakened among 
the Irish a spirit of bitter hostility to the new comers, which, in- 
tensified by fresh wrongs, has embittered all the relations of Ire- 
. land and England up to our own day. 

*— Contest between James and the Commons. — We have made 
mention of James's idea of the divine right of kingship. Such a 
view of royal authority and privileges was sure to bring him into 
conflict with Parliament, especially with the House of Commons. 
He was constantly dissolving Parliament and sending the members 
home, because they insisted upon considering subjects which he 
had told them they should let alone. 

The chief matters of dispute between the king and the Com- 
mons were the limits of the authority of the former in matters 
touching legislation and taxation, and the nature and extent of the 
privileges and jurisdictions of the latter. 

As to the limits of the royal power, James talked and acted as 
though his prerogatives were practically unbounded. He issued 
proclamations which in their scope were really laws, and then en- 
forced these royal edicts by fines and imprisonment as though they 
were regular statutes of Parliament. Moreover, taking advantage 



CONTEST BETWEEN JAMES AND THE COMMONS. 509 

of some uncertainty in the law as regards the power of the king to 
collect customs at the ports of the realm, he laid new and unusual 
duties upon imports and exports. James's judges were servile 
enough to sustain him in this course,, some of them going so far as 
to say that " the sea-ports are the king's gates, which he may open 
and shut to whom he pleases." 

Against all these usurpations of authority the Commons remon- 
strated vigorously, and by their attitude of determined opposition 
to the arbitrary course of their sovereign prevented the govern- 
ment of England from becoming an unlimited monarchy, in which 
the king, without the concurrence of Parliament, might make laws 
and levy taxes at pleasure. 

As to the privileges of the Commons, that body insisted, among 
other things, upon their right to determine all cases of contested 
election of their members, and to debate freely all questions con- 
cerning the common weal, without being liable to prosecution or 
imprisonment for words spoken in the House. James denied 
that these privileges were matters of right pertaining to the Com- 
mons, and repeatedly intimated to them that it was only through 
his own gracious permission and the favor of his ancestors that 
they were allowed to exercise these liberties at all, and that if 
their conduct was not more circumspect and reverential, he should 
take away their privileges entirely. 

On one occasion, the Commons having ventured in debate upon 
certain matters of State which the king had forbidden them to 
meddle with, he, in reproving them, made a more express denial 
than ever of their rights and privileges, which caused them, in a 
burst of noble indignation, to spread upon their journal a brave 
protest, known as " The Great Protestation," which declared that 
" the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of Parliament 
are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of the 
subjects of England, and that the arduous and urgent affairs con- 
cerning the king, state, and defense of the realm ... are proper 
subjects and matter of council and debate in Parliament" (1621). 

When intelligence of this action was carried to the king, he 



510 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

instantly sent for the journal of the House, and with his own hands 
tore out the leaf containing the obnoxious resolution. Then he 
angrily prorogued Parliament, and even went so far as to imprison 
several of the members of the Commons. In these high-handed 
measures we get a glimpse of the Stuart theory of government, and 
see the way paved for the final break between king and people, 
in the following reign. 

King James died in the year 1625, after a reign as sovereign of 
England and Scotland of twenty-two years. " Never," says Hume, 
" had sovereign a higher notion of the kingly dignity, never was 
any less qualified by nature to sustain it." 

Literature and Science. — One of the most noteworthy liter- 
ary labors of the reign under review was a new translation of the 
Bible, known as King James's Versioti. This royal version is the 
one in general use at the present day, although the recent Anglo- 
American Revision (1881) may supersede it in time. 

Two of the most noted prose writers of James's reign — Sir Wal- 
ter Raleigh and Francis Bacon — were a bequest to it from the 
brilliant era of Elizabeth. Of Walter Raleigh and his History, 
— born of his captivity, — and of his execution, we have already 
spoken. 1 The close of the life of the great philosopher Bacon was 
scarcely less sad. He held the office of Lord Chancellor, and 
yielding to the temptations of the corrupt times upon which he had 
fallen, accepted bribes from the suitors who brought cases before 
him. He was impeached and brought to the bar of the House of 
Lords, where he confessed his guilt, pathetically appealing to his 
judges "to be merciful to a broken reed." He was sentenced to 
pay a heavy fine, and to imprisonment in the Tower. But the 
king in pity released him from all the penalty, and even conferred 
a pension upon him. He lived only five years after his fall and 
disgrace, dying in 1626, the year following the death of the king. 

Bacon must be given the first place among the philosophers of 
the English-speaking race. His great service to science consisted 
in his clear statement of the way in which the laws of nature are to 
1 See above, page 506, note. 



THE PETITION OF RIGHT. 511 

be discovered. This, he insisted, must be through observation 
and experiment, not by guessing, or by blind reliance on author- 
ity. The Schoolmen of the mediaeval ages made little or no 
progress in the discovery of truth, because they were either blindly 
following Aristotle, or were forever framing useless syllogisms from 
unproved and invalid theological premises. 

The advance of science in this age was marked by William 
Harvey's (1578-1657) discovery and demonstration of the double 
circulation of the blood, one of the most important of the physio- 
logical discoveries that illustrate the progress of medical science. 1 

2. Reign of Charles the First (1 625-1 649). 

The Petition of Right (1628). — Charles I. came to the 
throne with all his father's lofty notions about the divine right of 
kings. Consequently the old contest between king and Parlia- 
ment was straightway renewed. The first Parliament of his reign 
Charles dissolved speedily, because instead of voting supplies they 
persisted in investigating public grievances. His second Parlia- 
ment met a similar fate. No sooner were the Houses assembled 
than the Commons carried up to the Lords articles of impeach- 
ment against the Duke of Buckingham, an ignorant, corrupt, and 
utterly worthless favorite of the king, yet his chief minister and 
adviser. In the eyes of the Commons this insolent upstart was 
" the grievance of grievances," and they were determined that the 
control of the English government — for Buckingham exercised 
almost royal power — should no longer rest in the hands of such a 
person. To save his favorite, and also to cut short further cen- 
sures upon his government, Charles abruptly dissolved Parliament. 

After the dissolution of his second Parliament Charles endeav- 

1 Shakespeare died about the middle of the reign (in 1616). Several of 
his companion dramatists, who like himself began their career under Eliza- 
beth, also outlived the queen, and did most of their work during the reign of 
her successor. The following dates may be of service : Ben Jonson (1573— 
1637); Francis Beaumont ( 1 586-1 6 1 6); John Fletcher (1576-1625) ; Philip 
Massinger (1584-1640); John Ford (1586-1639). 



512 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

ored to raise the money he needed to carry on the government, 
by means of benevolences and forced loans. But all his expe- 
dients failed to meet his needs, and he was forced to fall back 
upon Parliament. The Houses met, and promised to grant him 
generous subsidies, provided he would sign a certain Petition of 
Right which they had drawn up. Next after Magna Charta, this 
document is the most noted in the constitutional history of Eng- 
land. It simply reaffirmed the ancient rights and privileges of the 
English people as defined in the Great Charter and by the good 
laws of Edward I. and Edward III. Four abuses were provided 
against: (i) the raising of money by loans, benevolences, taxes, 
etc., without the consent of Parliament; (2) arbitrary imprison- 
ment ; (3) the quartering of soldiers in private houses — a very 
vexatious thing ; and (4) trial without jury. 

Charles was as reluctant to assent to the Petition as King John 
was to sign the Magna Charta ; but he was at length forced to give 
sanction to it by the use of the usual formula, " Let it be law as 
desired" (1628). 

The provisions of the Petition of Right were often violated by 
Charles and others of the Stuarts ; nevertheless it was a great advan- 
tage to the people to have their rights and privileges thus plainly 
stated, and to have their sovereigns bound by such a solemn com- 
pact ; because despotism always seeks to hide itself under the 
forms of law, and when these are so explicit that everybody knows 
just what is allowed and what is forbidden, very much has been 
gained in the way of preventing the violation by a tyrannical ruler 
of the liberties of his subjects. 

Charles rules without Parliament (1629-1640). — It soon 
became evident that Charles was utterly insincere when he put his 
name to the Petition of Right. He had no more thought of 
governing in good faith according to this solemn agreement 
between him and his people than King John had of observing the 
terms of Magna Charta. He immediately violated its provisions 
in attempting to raise money by forbidden taxes and loans. For 
eleven years he ruled without parliaments, thus changing the 



JOHN HAMPDEN AND SHIP-MONEY. 513 

government of England from a government by king, lords, and 
commons to what was in effect an absolute and irresponsible mon- 
archy, like that of France or Spain. 

As is always the case under such circumstances, there were 
enough persons ready to aid the king in his schemes of usurpa- 
tion. Prominent among his unscrupulous agents were his min- 
isters Thomas Wentworth and William Laud (Buckingham had 
fallen at the hand of an assassin), both of whom earned unenviable 
reputations through their industry and success in building up the 
absolute power of their master upon the ruins of the ancient insti- 
tutions of English liberty. Wentworth devoted himself to estab- 
lishing the royal despotism in civil matters ; while Laud, who was 
made Archbishop of Canterbury, busied himself chiefly with exalt- 
ing above all human interference the king's prerogatives in 
religious affairs as the supreme head of the English Church. 

All these high-handed and tyrannical proceedings of Charles 
and his agents were enforced by three iniquitous courts of 
usurped and arbitrary jurisdiction. These were known as the 
Council of the North, the Star Chamber, and the High Commis- 
sion Court. 

The first was a tribunal established by Henry VIII. , and was 
now employed by Wentworth as an instrument for enforcing the 
king's despotic authority in the turbulent northern counties of 
England. The Star Chamber was a court of very ancient origin, 
which at this time dealt chiefly with criminal cases affecting 
the government, such as riot, libel, and conspiracy. The High 
Commission Court was a tribunal of forty-four commissioners, 
created in Elizabeth's reign to enforce the acts of supremacy and 
uniformity. 

All of these courts sat without jury, and being composed of the 
creatures of the king, were of course his subservient instruments. 
Their decisions were unjust and arbitrary; their punishments, 
harsh and cruel. 

John Hampden and Ship-Money. — Among the illegal taxes 
levied during this period of tyranny was a species known as ship- 



514 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

money, so called from the fact that in early times the kings, when 
the realm was in danger, called upon the sea-ports and maritime 
counties to contribute ships and ship-material for the public ser- 
vice. Charles and his agents, in looking this matter over, con- 
ceived the idea of extending this tax over the inland as well as the 
sea-board counties. 

Among those who refused to pay the tax was a country gentle- 
man, named John Hampden. The case was tried in the Excheq- 
uer Chamber, before all the twelve judges. All England watched 
the progress of the suit with the utmost solicitude. The question 
was argued by able counsel both on the side of Hampden and of 
the crown. Judgment was finally rendered in favor of the king, 
although five of the twelve judges stood for Hampden. The case 
was lost ; but the people, who had been following the arguments, 
were fully persuaded that it went against Hampden simply for the 
reason that the judges stood in fear of the royal displeasure should 
they dare to decide the case adversely to the crown. 

The arbitrary and despotic character which the government had 
now assumed in both civil and religious matters, and the hopeless- 
ness of relief or protection from the courts, caused thousands to 
seek in the New World that freedom and security which was 
denied them in their own land. A somewhat doubtful tradition 
tells how Hampden himself and Oliver Cromwell, of whom we shall 
hear much hereafter, were among those who, seeing no hope of the 
restoration of liberty in England, had resolved to emigrate to 
America, but, when just ready to go on shipboard, were detained 
by an order forbidding any person to leave the kingdom without a 
royal license. If this be true, despotism here over-reached itself: 
— Charles detained his own executioner. 

The Covenanters. — England was almost ready to rise in open 
revolt against the unbearable tyranny. Events in Scotland hastened 
the crisis. The king was attempting to impose the English liturgy 
(slightly modified) upon the Scotch Presbyterians. A Sabbath 
was set on which the liturgy should be introduced in all the 
churches. At Edinburgh this led to a riot, the people throwing the 



ATTEMPT TO SEIZE THE EIVE MEMBERS. 515 

church furniture at the bishop who attempted to read the service. 
To them it seemed little better than a restoration of the Popery 
they had renounced. The spirit of resistance spread. All classes, 
nobles and peasants alike, bound themselves by a solemn covenant 
to resist to the very last every attempt to make innovations in their 
religion. From this act they became known as Covenanters 
(1638). 

The king resolved to crush the movement by force. The Cove- 
' nanters accepted the challenge with all that ardor which religious 
enthusiasm never fails to inspire. Charles soon found that war 
could not be carried on without money, and was constrained to 
summon Parliament in hopes of obtaining a vote of supplies. But 
instead of making the king a grant of money, the Commons first 
gave their attention to the matter of grievances, whereupon Charles 
dissolved the Parliament. The Scottish forces crossed the border, 
and the king, helpless with an empty treasury and a seditious army, 
was forced again to summon the two Houses. 

The Long Parliament. — Under this call met on November 3, 
1640 the Parliament which, from the circumstance of its lasting 
over twelve years, became known as the Long Parliament. The 
members of the Commons of this Parliament were stern and deter- 
mined men, men who fully realized the danger in which the tradi- 
tional liberties of Englishmen were set, and who were resolved to 
put a check to the despotic course of the king. 

Almost the first act of the Commons was the impeachment and 
trial of Strafford and Laud, as the most prominent instruments of 
the king's tyranny and usurpation. Both were finally brought to 
the block. The three iniquitous and illegal courts of which we have 
spoken, the High Commission Court, the Council of the North, 
and the Star Chamber, were abolished. And to secure themselves 
against dissolution before their work was done, a law was enacted 
which provided that they should not be adjourned or dissolved 
without their own consent. 

Charles's Attempt to Seize the Five Members. — An act of 
violence on the- part of Charles now precipitated the nation into 



516 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

the gulf of civil war, towards which events had been so rapidly 
drifting. With the design of overawing the Commons, the king 
made a charge of treason against five of the leading members, 
among whom were Hampden and Pym, and sent officers to effect 
their arrest ; but the accused were not to be found. The next day 
Charles himself, accompanied by armed attendants, went to the 
House, for the purpose of seizing the five members ; but, having 
been forewarned of the king's intention, they had withdrawn from 
the hall. The king was not long in realizing the state of affairs, 
and with the observation, " I see the birds have flown," withdrew 
from the chamber. 

Charles had taken a fatal step. The nation could not forgive 
the insult offered to its representatives. With the watchwords, 
"Privilege of Parliament," and "To your Tents, O Israel," all 
London rose in arms. The threatened members were conveyed 
to the Parliament building by way of the Thames, which was 
crowded with boats filled with armed men. The king, frightened 
by the storm which his rashness had provoked, fled from the city 
to York, " deserted by all the world, and overwhelmed with grief, 
shame, and remorse for the fatal measure into which he had been 
hurried" (Jan. 10, 1642). 

From the flight of Charles from London may be dated the begin- 
ning of the Civil War. 

Having now traced the events which led up to this open strife 
between the king and his people, we shall pass very lightly over 
the incidents of the struggle itself, and hasten to speak of the Com- 
monwealth, to the establishment of which the struggle led. 

The Civil War (1 642-1 649). 

The Beginning. — After the flight of the king, negotiations were 
entered into between him and Parliament with a view to a recon- 
ciliation. The demands of Parliament were that the militia, the 
services of the Church, the education and marriage of the king's 
children, and many other matters should be subject to the control 
of the two Houses. In making all these demands Parliament had 



THE SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE. 517 

manifestly gone to unreasonable lengths ; but so profound was 
their distrust of Charles, that they were unwilling to leave in his 
hands any power or prerogative that might be perverted or abused. 

Charles refused, as might have been and was expected, to ac- 
cede to the propositions of Parliament, and unfurling the royal 
standard at Nottingham, called upon all loyal subjects to rally to 
the support of their king (Aug. 22, 1642). 

The Two Parties. — The country was now divided into two 
great parties. Those that enlisted under the king's standard — on 
whose side rallied, for the most part, the nobility, gentry, and 
clergy — were known as Royalists, or Cavaliers \ while those that 
gathered about the Parliamentary banner were called Parliamenta- 
rians, or Roundheads, the latter term being applied to them be- 
cause many of their number cropped their hair close to the head, 
simply for the reason that the Cavaliers affected long and flowing 
locks. The Cavaliers favored the Established Church, while the 
Roundheads were Puritans. During the progress of the struggle 
the Puritans split into two parties, or sects, known as Presbyterians 
and Independents. 

For six years England now suffered all those evils of civil strife 
that marked the times of the contending Roses. 

Oliver Cromwell and his "Ironsides." — The war had con- 
tinued about three years when there came into prominence among 
the officers of the Parliamentary forces a man of destiny, one of the 
great characters of history, — Oliver Cromwell. During the early 
campaigns of the war, as colonel of a regiment of cavalry, he 
had exhibited his rare genius as an organizer and disciplinarian. 
His regiment became famous under the name of " Cromwell's 
Ironsides." It was composed entirely of " men of religion." 
Swearing, drinking, and the usual vices of the camp were unknown 
among them. They advanced to the charge with the singing of 
Psalms. During all the war the regiment was never once beaten. 

The Self-denying Ordinance (1646). — In the f the 

war the Puritans, as has been said, became divided into two par- 
ties, the Presbyterians and the Independents. The former desired 



/( h 



518 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

to reestablish a limited monarchy ; the latter wished to sweep aside 
the old constitution and form a republic. 

In the third year of the war there arose a struggle as to which 
party should have control of the army. The leaders of the Parliament- 
ary forces up to this time had been drawn from the ranks of the 
nobility, — of course some of the nobles were ranged on the side 
of Parliament, — but their conservatism had given rise to the 
charge, uttered by the more radical Independents, that they were 
"afraid to conquer." And there was some truth in the charge. 
These commanders were evidently apprehensive, from the drift of 
popular feeling, that, if the Parliamentary forces should gain a 
decisive victory over the king's army, the old form of government 
by king, nobles, and commons would be set aside, and a republic 
established in its stead. 

The Independents felt that nothing could be effected so long as 
the army was under the control of these semi-royalists. The army 
must be remodeled, and put into the hands of men not afraid to 
conquer. But the problem was how to effect this without giving 
offense to the conservative party, the Presbyterians ; for to alienate 
them would be to divide fatally the strength of the Parliamentary 
party. 

A scheme was at length devised by Cromwell and some others, 
which the strength of the Independents in Parliament enabled 
them to carry into successful execution. What was called the " Self- 
denying Ordinance," which declared that no member of either 
House should hold a position in the army, was introduced into 
Parliament, and pushed to a successful vote. As the army was 
officered by members of the two Houses, the passage of the ordi- 
nance effected the removal of the commander-in-chief, the Earl of 
Essex, — at whom the whole thing was aimed, — and several other 
noblemen. Cromwell, as he was a member of the House of Com- 
mons, should also have given up his command ; but the ordinance 
was suspended in his case so that he might retain his place as 
lieutenant-general. Sir Thomas Fairfax was made commander-in- 
chief. Though Cromwell was nominally second in command, he 
was now really at the head of the army. 



"PRIDE'S PURGED 519 

The "New Model." — Cromwell at once set about to effect 
the entire remodeling of the army on the plan of his favorite Iron- 
sides. His idea was that " the chivalry of the Cavalier must be 
met by the religious enthusiasm of the Puritan." The army was 
reduced to 20,000 men — all honest, fervent, God-fearing, psalm- 
singing Puritans. When not fighting, they studied the Bible, 
prayed, and sung hymns. Since Godfrey led his crusaders to the 
rescue of the Holy Sepulchre, the world had not beheld another 
such army of religious enthusiasts. From Cromwell down to the 
lowest soldier of the " New Model," every man felt called of the 
Lord to strike down all forms of tyranny in Church and State. 

The Battle of Naseby (1645). — The temper of the New 
Model was soon tried in the battle of Naseby, the decisive engage- 
ment of the war. The Royalists were scattered to the winds, and 
their cause was irretrievably lost. Charles escaped from the field, 
and ultimately fled into Scotland, thinking that he might rely upon 
the loyalty of the Scots to the House of Stuart ; but on his refusing 
to sign the Covenant, they gave him up to the English Parliament. 

" Pride's Purge " (1648). — For some time the king was now 
held as a sort of State prisoner, being first in the hands of Parlia- 
ment and then of the army. Everything was in confusion. The 
two parties, the Conservatives and Radicals, or Presbyterians and 
Independents, could not agree as to how the government should 
be reconstructed. The king displayed such insincerity in the 
negotiations which were opened, that both parties lost all confidence 
in him and his promises. Furthermore, the situation was ren- 
dered more strained and critical by the conspiracies in the king's 
behalf which were constantly coming to light. 

Finally it began to look as though a reconciliation would be 
effected between Charles and the Parliament, and the king be 
restored to authority without his having made any important con- 
cessions, or given any guaranties that he would in the future rule 
in accordance with the constitution and laws of the land. The 
Independents, which means Cromwell and the army, saw in this 
possibility the threatened ruin of all their hopes, the loss of all the 



520 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

fruits of victory. A high-handed measure was resolved upon, — 
the exclusion from the House of Commons of all those members 
who favored the restoration of Charles. 

Accordingly an officer by the name of Pride was stationed at the 
door of the hall, to arrest the members obnoxious to the army. 
One hundred and forty members were thus kept from their seats, 
and the Commons thereby reduced to less than a hundred repre- 
sentatives, all of whom of course were Independents. This per- 
formance was appropriately called " Pride's Purge." It was simply 
an act of military usurpation. Those engaged in it confessed 
that the only authority under which they acted was " the authority 
of the sword." 

Trial and Execution of the King. — The Commons thus 
" purged " of the king's friends now passed a resolution for the 
immediate trial of Charles for treason. A High Court of Justice, 
comprising 150 members, was organized, before which Charles 
was summoned. He came, but denied the authority of the court 
to try him. Notwithstanding his protest, the trial went on, and 
before the close of a week he was condemned to be executed " as 
a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and enemy of his country." 

In a few days the sentence was carried out. Charles bore him- 
self in the presence of death with great composure and dignity. 
He declared, and was doubtless sincere in the declaration, that 
"the people have no right to any part in government," and that 
" he died the martyr of the nation." As his gray head fell beneath 
the ax, and was held aloft by the executioner, with the words, 
" This is the head of a traitor," a shudder ran through the vast 
assemblage that pressed about the foot of the scaffold. The Eng- 
lish people had never before witnessed such a scene, — the head 
of their king in the hands of an executioner ; nor was the scene to 
have a parallel in all their subsequent history. Now that the deed 
was done, even the perpetrators themselves seemed horror-stricken 
(Jan. 30, 1649). 

Regarding the question whether Cromwell and the other leaders 
of the army in taking the life of their sovereign went to greater 



WAR WITH IRELAND. 521 

lengths than justice or their own safety demanded, many and con- 
flicting judgments have been given. In view of the difficulties 
and prejudices which still surround the question, we may well pass 
the subject with the words of Dargand as used by Lamartine in 
closing his story of the Queen of Scots : — " We judge not ; we only 
relate." 

II. The Commonwealth (i 649-1 660). 

Establishment of the Commonwealth. — A few weeks after the 
execution of Charles, the Commons voted to abolish the 
Monarchy and the House of Lords, and to establish a republic, 
under the name of " The Commonwealth." A new Great Seal 
was made with this legend and date : " The first year of freedom, by 
God's blessing restored, 1648." The executive power was lodged 
in a Council of State, composed of forty-one persons. Of this 
body Bradshaw, an eminent lawyer, was the nominal, but Crom- 
well the real, head. 

Troubles of the Commonwealth. — The Republic thus born of 
mingled religious and political enthusiasm was beset with dangers 
from the very first. The execution of Charles had alarmed every 
sovereign in Europe. Russia, France, and Holland, all refused to 
have any communication with the embassadors of the Common- 
wealth. The Scots, who too late repented of having surrendered 
their native sovereign into the hands of his enemies, now hastened 
to wipe out the stain of their disloyalty by proclaiming his son their 
king, with the title of Charles the Second. The impulsive Irish 
also declared for the Prince, offering him their hearts and their 
lives ; while the Dutch began active preparations to assist him in 
regaining the throne of his unfortunate father. In England itself 
the Royalists were active and threatening. 

War with Ireland. — The Commonwealth, like the ancient 
Republic of Rome, seemed to gather strength and energy from the 
very multitude of surrounding dangers. Cromwell was made Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland, and sent into that country to crush a rising 
of the Royalists there. With his Ironsides he made quick and 



522 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

terrible work of the conquest of the island. Having taken by 
storm the town of Drogheda (1649), he massacred the entire 
garrison, consisting of three thousand men. About a thousand 
who had sought asylum in a church were butchered there without 
mercy. The capture of other towns was accompanied by massa- 
cres little less terrible. The conqueror's march through the island 
was the devastating march of an Attila or Zinghis Khan. The 
following is his own account of the manner in which he dealt with 
the captured garrisons : " When they submitted, their officers 
were knocked on the head, and every tenth man of the soldiers 
killed, and the rest shipped for Barbadoes." 

The savage cruelty displayed by Cromwell in crushing the Irish 
uprising will forever remain as a terrible stain upon his reputation. 
Yet in his own mind he justified his acts. He seemed to regard 
himself as another Samuel called by the Lord to hew Agag in 
pieces. In a dispatch which narrates his slaughters, he says, " I 
am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these 
barbarous wretches who have imbued their hands in so much inno- 
cent blood, and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood 
for the future." 

War with Scotland. — Cromwell was called out of Ireland by 
the Council to lead an army into Scotland. The terror of his 
name went before him, and the people fled as he approached. At 
Dunbar he met the Scotch army. The pious enthusiasm of the 
Puritan is displayed in the words with which Cromwell urged his 
men on to the charge. It was early morning when the battle 
opened, and the sun was just clearing away the mist that covered 
the lowlands: "Let God arise," he cried, "and let his enemies 
be scattered ! like as the mist vanisheth, so shall thou drive them 
away ! " And before the terrible onset of the fanatic Roundheads 
the Scots were scattered like chaff before the wind. Ten thou- 
sand were made prisoners, and all the camp train and artillery were 
captured (1650). 

The following year, on the anniversary of the Battle of Dunbar, 
Cromwell gained another great victory over the Scottish army at 



CROMWELL EJECTS THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 523 

Worcester, and all Scotland was soon after forced to submit to the 
authority of the Commonwealth. Prince Charles, after many ad- 
venturous experiences, escaped across the Channel into Normandy. 

War with the Dutch. — With the authority of the Common- 
wealth acknowledged throughout the British Isles, the Parliament 
sought to increase the power and influence of the republic by a 
sort of alliance with the Dutch ; but as such a confederation as 
that proposed would have made the Netherlands little more than 
a province of the English Commonwealth, the Dutch refused, 
rather contemptuously, to enter into the arrangement. This incensed 
the English Parliament, and they resolved upon punishing the 
Dutch for their insolence. As if to provoke the United Prov- 
inces to some act that would afford a pretext for war, the Parlia- 
ment passed an unreasonable act of navigation, which forbade 
foreign ships bringing into England any products or manufactures 
save those of their own country. Of course this was aimed at the 
Dutch sailors, whose ships brought to the English docks the prod- 
ucts of every land on the globe. 

War instantly ensued, the struggle being carried on chiefly upon 
the sea. It was at this time that the Dutch admiral Van Tromp, 
having gained a great victory, tied an immense broom to his mast- 
head and swept boastfully up and down the Channel. His antago- 
nist Blake, however, in a subsequent engagement, amply avenged 
the insult. Finally, after a most useless and destructive war, the 
two republics were reconciled (1654). 

Cromwell ejects the Long Parliament (1653). — While the 
Dutch War was going on, the Parliament that provoked it had 
come to an open quarrel with the army. Cromwell demanded of 
Parliament their dissolution, and the calling of a new body. This 
they refused ; whereupon, taking with him a body of soldiers, 
Cromwell went to the House, and after listening impatiently for a 
while to the debate, suddenly sprang to his feet, and with bitter 
reproaches, exclaimed : " I will put an end to your prating. Get 
you gone ; give place to better men. You are no Parliament. 
The Lord has done with you." The soldiers rushing in at a pre- 



524 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

concerted signal, the hall was cleared, and the doors locked 

(1653). 

In such summary manner the Long Parliament, or the " Rump 

Parliament," as it was called in derision after Pride's Purge, was 
dissolved, after having sat for twelve years. So completely had 
the body lost the confidence and respect of all parties, that 
scarcely a murmur was heard against the illegal and arbitrary mode 
of its dissolution. 

Cromwell's Ambition. — It is very difficult to determine what 
at this time were Cromwell's feelings and aims. Yet we may feel 
quite sure that his ambitions were not very different from those of 
other great conquerors, like Caesar or Napoleon, who, with all 
enemies overpowered and all opposition leveled, have found 
supreme authority within their grasp. Like all men of preternatural 
energy awakened to a consciousness of their strength by marvelous 
success, he coveted power. Doubtless at this moment his thoughts 
were upon the crown of England. It is true that, a few years 
after this, when the crown was offered him by a partisan Parlia- 
ment, he refused to accept it, even as Caesar, while coveting, 
pushed aside the crown proffered by Antony ; but the refusal was , 
prompted by prudence, for, like the Roman usurper, he too heard 
the murmurs of the people. 

But we must be careful and not allow ourselves to be carried too 
far away from the truth by historical parallels. Cromwell, unless 
he was wholly a hypocrite, — which we cannot believe, — was 
swayed by convictions and enthusiasms to which those soldiers of 
fortune to whom we have compared him were utter strangers. 
Caesar and Napoleon indeed thought themselves men of destiny, 
and spoke often of their ascendant star. But this feeling was very 
different from the conviction of Cromwell, a conviction springing 
from the ardor of his religious enthusiasm, that he was called of 
God to lead the English nation out from under all royal tyranny 
and priestly despotism into the fullest civil and religious liberty. 
Even while his eager, resolute, and impetuous spirit was hurrying 
him on to the undertaking, he seemed to shrink from assuming the 



/ *RA ISE- C OD BA REB OA '/•. ' S PA R /. I A MEA ' 7 \ 



525 



burdens and responsibilities laid upon him. "I have sought the 
Lord night and day that he would rather slay me than put me 
upon the doing of this work," were his words while clearing the 
hall of the Long Parliament. 

Praise-God Barebone's Parliament (1653). — The forcible 
dissolution of the Long Parliament left England in a most critical 
state. For a moment the realm trembled on the verge of anarchy. 
Cromwell's strong hand alone could hold the nation back from the 
fearful plunge, — and he knew it, and others knew it. lie must 
compose the distracted state and settle its government. Put never 
was a more difficult task laid upon man. 

There were three courses open to him. He might set up a mili- 
tary despotism, reestablish the Monarchy, or complete the or- 
ganization of the Republic. As to the first, he had no wish to 
build up a despotism upheld by the sword. It was to strike down 
despotism that he had taken up arms against his king. To attempt 
to restore the Monarchy was to alienate the army and the republi- 
can party throughout the nation. Such a movement could not fail 
of awakening the most dangerous opposition among religious 
fanatics who were so violently opposed to even the name of 
" king," that in the use of the Lord's Prayer they would not say 
"thy kingdom come," but prayed instead "thy commonwealth 
come." As to the Republic, it is manifest that Cromwell never 
desired a purely republican form of government. What he wished 
was_Jo secure to the English people civil and religious liberty 
under a .government consisting, as he himself put it, of " a single 
person and a Parliament," — a Parliament composed of " honest 
men," that is, "men of religion." 

In pursuance of his plans for the settlement of the realm, Crom- 
well now called a new Parliament, or more properly, a convention, 
summoning, so far as he might, only religious, God-fearing men. 
"These men," said he, "will hit it, and these men will do it to the 
purpose, whatever can be desired." 

The "Little Parliament," as sometimes called, consisted of 156 
members, mainly religious fanatics, who spent much of their time 



526 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

in Scripture exegesis, prayer, and exhortation. Among them was 
a London leather-merchant, named Praise-God Barebone, who 
was especially given to these exercises. The name amused the 
people, and as the exhorter was a fair representative of the con- 
vention, they nicknamed it " Praise-God Barebone Parliament," by 
which designation it has passed into history. 

The Little Parliament had sat only a few months before its 
members resigned all their powers into the hands of Cromwell ; 
and shortly afterwards his council of army officers, fearing the 
country would fall into anarchy, persuaded him — though manifest- 
ing reluctance, he probably was quite willing to be persuaded — to 
accept the title of " Lord Protector of the Commonwealth." 

The Protectorate (1653-1659). — Cromwell's power was now 
almost unlimited. He was virtually a dictator. The right by 
which he ruled was the call of God and the people, as much a 
divine right in his mind as that by which Charles had reigned. 
His administration was harsh and despotic. He summoned, pro- 
rogued, and dissolved parliaments. The nation was really under 
martial law. Papists and Royalists were treated with the utmost 
rigor. A censorship of the Press was established. Scotland was 
overawed by strong garrisons. The Irish Royalists, rising against 
the "usurper," were crushed with remorseless severity. Thousands 
were massacred, and thousands more were transported to the West 
Indies to be sold as slaves. Forty thousand sought freedom 
from the Protector's tyranny by enlisting in the armies of the 
continent. The wrongs and cruelties inflicted by Cromwell upon 
that unfortunate island greatly intensified the animosities that 
former injustices had aroused in the Irish people against their 
English conquerors. 

While the resolute and despotic character of Cromwell's govern- 
ment secured obedience at home, its strength and vigor awakened 
the fear as well as admiration of foreign nations. He gave Eng- 
land the strongest government she had had since the days of 
Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. He wrested Jamaica from Spain, 
crippled her fleet and army, and humbled her pride. He com- 



RICHARD CROMWELL. 527 

pelled the French Duke of Savoy to cease his persecution of the 
VaudoiSj and boldly informed the Pope that, if Protestants contin- 
ued to be harassed through the machinations of the Roman See, 
the roar of English guns would speedily awaken the echoes of St. 
Peter's Cathedral. 

Cromwell's Death. — Notwithstanding Cromwell was a man of 
immovable resolution and iron spirit, he felt sorely the burdens of 
his government, and was deeply troubled by the anxieties of his 
position. In the midst of apparent success, he was painfully con- 
scious of utter failure. He had wished to establish a permanent 
government by "a single person" and Parliament, with himself as 
the recognized constitutional head of the State. Instead, he found 
himself a military usurper, whose title was simply the title of the 
sword. His government, we may believe, was as hateful to him- 
self as to the great mass of the English people. He lived in con- 
stant fear of the dagger. As precautions against assassination, he 
surrounded himself with guards, wore armor beneath his outer 
garments, and slept in a different chamber almost every night. 
With his constitution undermined by overwork and anxiety, fever 
attacked him, and with gloomy apprehensions as to the terrible 
dangers into which England might drift after his hand had fallen 
from the helm of affairs, he lay down to die, passing away on the 
day which he had always called his "fortunate day" — the anni- 
versary of his birth, and also the anniversary of his great victories 
of Dunbar and Worcester (Sept. 3, 1658). Almost his last words 
were, "My work is done ; yet God will be with his people." 

As when the great Napoleon lay dying at St. Helena the island 
was shaken by a fierce tempest, so now the elements seemed to be 
in sympathy with the restless soul of Cromwell. "A storm which 
tore roofs from houses and leveled huge trees in every forest 
seemed a fitting prelude to the passing away of his mighty spirit." 

Richard Cromwell (1658-1659). — Cromwell with his dying 
breath had designated his son Richard as his successor in the 
office of the Protectorate. Richard was exactly the opposite of 
his father, — timid, irresolute, and irreligious. The control of 



528 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

affairs that had taxed to the utmost the genius and resources 
of the father was altogether too great an undertaking for the 
incapacity and inexperience of the son. No one was quicker to 
realize this than Richard himself, and after a rule of a few months, 
yielding to the pressure of the army, whose displeasure he had 
incurred, he resigned the Protectorate, and, after spending a short 
time on the continent, sought amidst the retirements of rural life 
that ease and quiet so congenial to his disposition. Had he pos- 
sessed one half the energy and practical genius that characterized 
his father, the crown would probably have become hereditary in the 
family of the Cromwells, and their house might have been num- 
bered among the royal houses of England. 

The Restoration (1660). — For some months after the fall of the 
Protectorate the country trembled on the verge of anarchy. The 
gloomy outlook into the future, and the unsatisfactory experiment 
of the Commonwealth, caused the great mass of the English peo- 
ple earnestly to desire the restoration of the Monarchy. Charles 
Stuart, towards whom the tide of returning loyalty was running, 
was now in Holland. A race was actually run between Monk, the 
leader of the army, and Parliament, to see which should first pre- 
sent him with the invitation to return to his people, and take his 
place upon the throne of his ancestors. Amid the wildest demon- 
strations of joy, Charles stepped ashore on the island from which 
he had been for nine years an exile. As he observed the exten- 
sive preparations made for his reception, and received from all 
parties the warmest congratulations, he remarked with pleasant 
satire, " It is my own fault that I had not come back, for I find 
nobody who does not tell me he has always longed for my return " 
(1660). 

Puritan Literature. 

It lights up the Religious Side of the English Revolution. — 

In dealing with the writings of any given period we have regarded 
them rather from an historical than literary point of view. We 
have made use of them to interpret the real spirit of the age under 
review ; for the best and truest literature of any period is simply a 



PI T RITAN LIT ERA 77 'RE. 529 

reflection of the manners, customs, thoughts, feelings and convic- 
tions, hopes and strivings, of the times. 

Now, no epoch in history receives a fresher illustration from the 
study of its literature than that of the Puritan Commonwealth. To 
neglect this, and yet hope to gain a true conception of that won- 
derful episode in the life of the English people by an examination 
of its outer events and incidents alone, would, as Green declares, 
be like trying to form an idea of the life and work of ancient 
Israel from Kings and Chronicles, without Psalms and Prophets. 
The true character of the English Revolution, especially upon its 
religious side, must be sought in the magnificent Epic of Milton 
and the unequaled Allegory of Bunyan. 

Both of these great works, it is true, were written after the Res- 
toration, but they were both inspired by the same spirit that had 
struck down Despotism and set up the Commonwealth. The Epic 
was the work of a lonely, disappointed Republican, the Allegory of 
a captive Puritan. 

Milton (1608- 1 6 74) stands as the grandest representative of 
Puritanism. He was the greatest statesman of the Revolution, the 
stoutest champion of English liberties against the tyranny of the 
House of Stuart. After the death of Charles I. he wrote a famous 
work in Latin entitled "The Defence of the English People," in 
which he justified the execution of the king. This work produced 
a most profound impression throughout Europe. 

The Restoration forced Milton into retirement, and the last 
fourteen years of his life were passed apart from the world. It was 
during these years that, in loneliness and blindness, he composed 
the immortal poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. The 
former is the " Epic of Puritanism." All that was truest and 
grandest in the Puritan character found expression in the moral 
elevation and religious fervor of this the greatest of Christian epics. 

John Bunyan (1628-1688) was a Puritan non-conformist. After 
the Restoration, he was imprisoned for twelve months in Bedford 
jail, on account of non-conformity to the established worship. It 
was during this dreary confinement that he wrote his Pi/grim's 



530 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Progress, the most admirable allegory in English literature. The 
habit of the Puritan, from constant study of the Bible, to employ 
in all forms of discourse its language and imagery, is best illus- 
trated in the pages of this remarkable work. Its fervent spirit and 
language have both been caught from a long and devout study of 
the Holy Word. Here, as nowhere else, we learn what realities 
to the Puritan were the Scriptural representations of sin, repen- 
tance, and atonement, of Heaven and Hell. 



u 



III. The Restored Stuarts. 
i. Reig7i of Charles the Second (i 660-1 685). 

Character of the King. — The title of " Merry Monarch," 
which was familiarly applied to Charles II., very aptly describes 
his character. He was sagacious and cautious, easy in manners 
and engaging in conversation ; but was prodigal, cynical, heartless, 
unprincipled, and shamefully licentious. He was "an idler," who 
" hated the very sight or thought of business." 

Had he not been so indolent, he would have made a typical 
despot. As it was, he preferred his ease and amusement to the 
exertion and danger incident to the prosecution of schemes of 
tyranny among a people traditionally jealous and watchful of their 
rights and liberties. 

Punishment of the Regicides. — By act of Parliament a general 
pardon was extended to all who had taken part in the late rebellion, 
save certain of the judges who had condemned Charles to the 
block. Thirteen of these were executed with revolting cruelty, 
their hearts and bowels being cut out of their living bodies. Others 
of the regicides were condemned to imprisonment for life. Death 
had already removed the great leaders of the rebellion, Cromwell, 
Ireton, and Bradshaw, beyond the reach of Royalist hate ; so ven- 
geance was taken upon their bodies. These were dragged from 
their tombs in Westminster Abbey, hauled to Tyburn, and there, 
on the anniversary of Charles's execution, were hanged, and after- 
wards beheaded (1661). 

Li. '■* ■ - 



Yd W^ 




THE COVENANTERS. 531 

The New Model is disbanded. — This same Parliament, mind- 
ful of how the army had ruled preceding ones, took care to 
disband, as soon as possible, the "New Model." "With them 
Puritanism laid down the sword. It ceased from the long attempt 
to build up a kingdom of God by force and violence, and fell back 
on its truer work of building up a kingdom of righteousness in the 
hearts and consciences of men." ] — Green. 

The Conventicle and Five-Mile Acts. — Early in the reign the 
services of the Anglican Church were restored by Parliament, and 
harsh laws were enacted against all non-conformists. Thus the 
Conventicle Act made it a crime punishable by imprisonment or 
transportation for more than five persons besides the household to 
gather in any house or in any place for worship, unless the service 
•was conducted according to the forms of the Established Church. 

The Five-Mile Act forbade any non-conformist minister who 
refused to swear that it is unlawful to take arms against the king 
under any circumstances, and that he never would attempt to 
make any change in Church or State government, to approach 
within five miles of any city, corporate town, or borough sending 
members to Parliament. This harsh act forced hundreds to give 
up their homes in the towns, and, with great inconvenience and 
loss, to seek new ones in out-of-the-way country places. 

The Covenanters. — In Scotland the attempt to suppress con- 
venticles and introduce Episcopacy was stubbornly resisted by the 
Covenanters, who insisted on their right to worship God in their 
own way. They were therefore subjected to persecutions most 
cruel and unrelenting. They were hunted by English troopers 
over their native moors and among the wild recesses of their 

1 While Charles was not altogether averse to disbanding the Puritan soldiers 
of the Commonwealth, he was resolved not to do without an army, the impor- 
tance of which to a sovereign who would rule independently he well under- 
stood. Accordingly, on the pretext that the disturbed state of the realm 
demanded special precautions on the part of the government, he retained in 
his service three carefully chosen regiments, to which he gave the name of 
Guards. These, very soon augmented in number, formed the nucleus of the 
present standing army of England. 



532 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

mountains, whither they secretly retired for prayer and worship. 
The tales of the sufferings of the Scotch Covenanters at the hands 
of the English Protestants are only equalled by the tales of the 
wrongs and cruelties inflicted upon the Vaudois of the Alps by the 
French Catholics. 

The Fire, the Plague, and the Dutch War. — The years from 
1664 to 1667 were crowded with calamities, — with war, plague, 
and fire. The poet Dryden not inaptly calls the year of 1666, in 
which the Great Fire at London added its horrors and losses to 
those of pestilence and war, the Annus Mirabilis, or "Year of 
Wonders." 

The war alluded to was a struggle between the English and the 
Dutch, which grew out of commercial rivalries (1664-1667). In 
the first year of this contest the English took New Amsterdam in 
America away from the Dutch, and changed its name to New 
York in honor of the king's brother, the Duke of York. In the 
year 1667 the Dutch fleet entered the estuary of the Thames, 
burned some English ships, and threatened London. This was 
the first time a hostile vessel had floated on that river since the 
days of the Vikings. The English felt deeply the humiliation, and 
were very angry with Charles, whose mismanagement and ineffi- 
ciency had rendered such a thing possible. 

Early in the summer of 1665 tne Cl ty of London was swept by 
a wbful plague, the most terrible visitation the city had known 
since the Black Death in the Middle Ages. Within six months 
100,000 of the population perished. The panic-stricken people 
fled from the place, and grass grew in the streets. 

The plague was followed, the next year, by a great fire, which 
destroyed 13,000 houses, and a vast number of churches and 
public buildings. The fire was afterwards acknowledged to be, 
like the Great Fire at Rome in Nero's reign, a blessing in disguise. 
It destroyed so completely the germs of the plague that lurked in 
the filthy quarters swept by the flames, that London has never had 
another visitation of the pestilence, although before the conflagra- 
tion it usually broke out with greater or less violence every thirty 



THE POPISH PLOT. 533 

or forty years. The burnt districts were also rebuilt in a more sub- 
stantial way, with broader streets and more airy residences, so that 
London became a more beautiful and healthful city than would 
have been possible without the fire. 

One of the churches destroyed was St. Paul's Cathedral, which 
was rebuilt with great magnificence. It is the finest Protestant 
church in the world. Its designer was the great architect Sir 
Christopher Wren, whose tomb within the building bears this in- 
scription : Si tnonumentum requiris i circumspice — " If you ask for 
his monument, look around." 

Charles's Intrigues with Louis XIV. — Throughout almost the 
whole of his reign Charles was plotting with Louis XIV. of France 
against the liberties and religion of his own subjects. He inclined 
to the Catholic worship, and wished to re-establish the Roman 
Catholic Church, because he thought it more favorable than the 
Anglican to such a scheme of government as he aimed to set up 
in England. In the year 1670 he made a secret treaty with the 
French king, the terms and objects of which were most scanda- 
lous. In return for aid which he was to render Louis in an at- 
tack upon Holland, he was to receive from him a large sum of 
money ; and in case his proposed declaration in favor of the res- 
toration of the Catholic Church produced any trouble in the island, 
the aid of French troops. But Charles's naturally vacillating and 
indolent disposition, together with his fear of the resentment of his 
Protestant subjects, prevented the consummation of these sehemes. 
These clandestine negotiations, however, became an open secret, 
enough leaking out respecting them to render the people very 
uneasy and suspicious. This state of the public mind led to a 
serious delusion and panic. 

The Popish Plot (1678). — A rumor was started that the Pa- 
pists had planned for England a St. Bartholomew. The king, the 
members of Parliament, and all Protestants were to be massa- 
cred, the Catholic Church was to be re-established, and the king's 
brother James, the Duke of York, a zealous Catholic, was to be 
placed on the throne. Each day the reports of the conspiracy 



534 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

grew more exaggerated and wild. Informers sprang up on every 
hand, each with a more terrifying story than the preceding. One 
of these witnesses, Titus Oates by name, a most infamous person, 
gained an extraordinary notoriety in exposing the imaginary plot. 
Many Papists, convicted solely by the testimony of perjured wit- 
nesses, became victims of the delusion and fraud. 

The excitement produced by the supposed plot led Parliament 
to pass what was called the Test Act, which excluded Catholics 
from the House of Lords. (They had already been shut out from 
the House of Commons by the oath of supremacy, which was 
required of commoners, though not of peers.) The disability 
created by this statute was not removed from the Papists until the 
present century, — in the reign of George the Fourth. 

Origin of the Names Whig and Tory. — Besides shutting 
Catholic peers out of Parliament, there was a large party in both 
houses who were determined to exclude the Duke of York from 
the throne. Those in favor of the measure of exclusion were 
called Whigs, those who opposed it Tories. 1 We cannot, perhaps, 
form a better general idea of the maxims and principles of these 
two parties than by calling the Whigs the political descendants of 
the Roundheads, and the Tories of the Cavaliers. Later in Eng- 
lish history they became known respectively as Liberals and 
Conservatives. 

The Habeas Corpus Act. — The year following the Popish Plot 
the Parliament passed the celebrated Habeas Corpus Act. This 
statute was intended to render more effectual the ancient and 
valued writ of habeas corpus, which was designed to protect the 
personal liberty of Englishmen, but which the king's courts and 
sheriffs were rendering wellnigh useless through their evasions and 

1 The origin of the word " Whig " is a little uncertain; some get it from the 
initial letters of the phrase, " We hope in God," which was the motto of some 
of the early members of the party; others from whey, the drink of the Scotch 
Covenanters. " Tory " probably comes from the Irish word toree (give me), the 
command of the robber. Before pressed into political service, it was applied 
to the half-civilized natives of certain districts in Ireland. 



JAMES'S DESPOTIC COCA'S/,. 535 

shifts. The law is so carefully and ingeniously drawn that it is 
almost impossible for its provisions to be evaded in any way. It 
gives every person almost absolute security against illegal detention 
in prison, and is the strongest safeguard against the attempts of a 
despotic ruler upon the liberty of those who may have incurred his 
displeasure. 

The story of the taking in the House of Lords of the vote by 
which the bill became a law is a very curious bit of historical gossip. 
Upon the division of the House, as the lords were passing before 
the tellers to be counted, an absurdly corpulent member coming 
along, one of the tellers, Lord Gray by name, simply in jest, 
counted him as ten. Observing, however, that his colleague, an- 
absent-minded person, did not notice the miscount, and that the 
bill in order to carry needed the added number, he allowed the 
misreckoning to go uncorrected. And thus one of the most 
important statutes ever enacted by Parliament " was passed by a 
foolish jest and a shameless falsehood." 

The King's Death. — After a reign of just one quarter of a cen- 
tury, Charles died in 1685, and was followed by his brother James, 
whose rule was destined to be short and troubled. 

2. Reign of James tlie Second (1 685-1 688). 

James's Despotic Course. 1 — James, like all the other Stuarts, 
held exalted notions of the divine right of kings to rule as they 
please, and at once set about carrying out these ideas in a most im- 
prudent and reckless manner. Notwithstanding he had given most 
solemn assurances that he would uphold the Anglican Church, he 

1 James was barely seated upon the throne before the Duke of Monmouth, 
an illegitimate son of Charles II., who had been in exile in the Netherlands, 
asserted his right to the crown, and at the head of a hundred men invaded 
England. Thousands flocked to his standard, but in the battle of Sedgemoor 
(1685) he was utterly defeated by the royal troops. Terrible vengeance was 
wreaked upon all in any way connected with the rebellion. The notorious 
Chief Justice Jeffries, in what were called the " Bloody Assizes," condemned 
to death 320 persons, and sentenced 841 to transportation. Jeffries conducted 
the so-called trials with incredible brutality. 



536 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

straightway set about the re-establishment of the Roman worship. 
He instituted the Catholic service in the royal chapel, and encour- 
aged monks and friars, who now began to swarm in the cities, 
where their habit had not been seen for a long time. He arbi- 
trarily prorogued and dissolved Parliament. The standing army, 
which Charles had raised to io,ooo men, he increased to 20,000, 
and placed Catholics in many of its most important offices. He 
formed a league against his own subjects with Louis XIV., — 
became, in a word, his pensioner, and reduced England to the 
degrading position of a dependency of France. The High Com- 
mission Court of Elizabeth, which had been abolished by Parlia- 
ment, was- practically restored in a new ecclesiastical tribunal 
presided over by the infamous Jeffries. 

The despotic course of the king raised up enemies on all sides. 
No party or sect, save the most zealous Catholics, stood by him. 
The Tory gentry were in favor of royalty, indeed, but not of 
tyranny. Thinking to make friends of the Protestant dissenters, 
James issued a decree known as the Declaration of Indulgence, 
whereby he suspended all the laws against non-conformists. This 
edict all the clergy were ordered to read from their pulpits. 
Almost to a man they refused to do so. Seven bishops even dared 
to send the king a petition and remonstrance against his uncon- 
stitutional proceedings. 

The petitioners were thrust into the Tower, and soon brought to 
trial on the charge of " seditious libel." The nation was now 
thoroughly aroused, and the greatest excitement prevailed while 
the trial was progressing. Judges and jury were overawed by the 
popular demonstration, and the bishops were acquitted. The news 
of the result of the trial was received not only by the people, but 
by the army as well, with shouts of joy, which did not fail to reach 
even the dull ears of the king. 

The Revolution of 1688. — The crisis which it was easy to see 
was impending was hastened by the birth of a prince, as this cut 
off the hope of the nation that the crown upon James's death 
would descend to his daughter Mary, now wife of the Prince of 



THE REVOLUTION OS" 1688. 537 

Orange, Stadtholder of Holland. The prospect of the accession 
in the near future of a Protestant and freedom-loving Prince and 
Princess reconciled the people to the misgovernment of their pres- 
ent despotic and Catholic sovereign. The appearance upon the 
stage of an infant prince gave a wholly different look to affairs, and, 
as we have said, destroyed all hope of matters being righted by 
the ordinary course of events. 

This led the most active of the king's enemies to resolve to 
bring about at once what they had been inclined to wait to have 
accomplished by his death. They sent an invitation to the Prince 
of Orange to come over with such force as he could muster and 
take possession of the government, pledging him the united and 
hearty support of the English nation. William accepted the invi- 
tation, notified the world in a manly address that he was going to 
protect the liberties of England, and straightway began to gather 
his fleet and army for the enterprise. 

Meanwhile King James, in his blind and obstinate way, was 
rushing on headlong upon his own destruction. He seemed abso- 
lutely blind to the steady and rapid drift of the nation towards the 
point of open resistance and revolution. At last, when the sails of 
the Dutch fleet were spread for a descent upon the English shores, 
then the infatuated despot suddenly realized, what he seems to 
have been utterly oblivious to before, that absolute ruin was im- 
pending over his throne. He now adopted every expedient to 
avert the threatened evil. He restored to cities the charters he 
had wrongfully taken from them, re-instated magistrates in the posi- 
tions from which they had been unjustly deposed, attempted to 
make friends with the bishops, and promised to sustain the Angli- 
can Church and rule in accordance with the constitution of the 
realm. 

All concessions and promises, however, were in vain. They 
came too late. The king was absolutely deserted ; army and 
people went over in a body to the Prince of Orange, whose fleet 
had now touched the shores of the island. Flight alone was left 
him. The Queen with her infant child was secretly embarked for 



533 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

France, where the king soon after joined her. It would have 
been easy to have detained him in England, but the people had no 
wish to see another royal execution, and so the way for his escape 
was left open. The last act of the king before leaving England 
was to disband the army, and fling the Great Seal into the Thames. 

In France the self-exiled monarch and his family were kindly 
received by Louis, who kept up for them the shadow of a court in 
one of the royal palaces near the capital. 

For a moment after the king's flight all things trembled on the 
verge of anarchy ; England was without a government. The army 
having been disbanded by James, the lawless and abandoned, with 
all restraint removed, were ready for riot and plunder. But Eng- 
lish self-restraint and love of order soon triumphed over panic and 
passion, and the threatened dissolution of society was averted. 
The peers in London assumed the responsibility of temporarily 
directing matters, and thus affairs were secured, while pressing 
messages to the Prince of Orange urged him to hasten to London 
to assume the government. 

The Prince's first act was to issue a call for a Convention to pro- 
vide for the permanent settlement of the crown. This body met 
January 22, 1689, and after a violent debate declared the throne 
to be vacant through James's misconduct and flight. They then 
resolved, since William had expressed an unwillingness to rule 
simply as regent for his wife, 1 and she had also declined to take 
the crown alone, to confer the royal dignity upon both as joint 
sovereigns of the realm. 

But this Convention did not repeat the error of the Parliament 
that restored Charles II., and give the crown to the Prince and 
Princess without proper safeguards and guaranties for the conduct 
of the government according to the ancient laws of the kingdom. 
They drew up the celebrated Declaration of Rights, which plainly 
rehearsed all the old rights and liberties of Englishmen ; denied 
the right of the king to lay taxes or maintain an army without the 

1 William by his own right stood next in succession to Mary and Anne. 



LITERATURE OE THE RESTORATION. 539 

consent of Parliament ; and asserted that freedom of debate was 
the inviolable privilege of both the Lords and the Commons. 
William and Mary were required to accept this declaration, and to 
agree to rule in accordance with its provisions, whereupon they 
were declared King and Queen of England. 

In such manner was effected what is known in history as " the 
bloodless Revolution of 1688." 

Literature of the Restoration. 

It reflects the Immorality of the Age. — The reigns of the 
restored Stuarts mark the most corrupt period in the life of the 
English people. The low standard of morals, and the general prof- 
ligacy in manners, especially among the higher classes, are in part 
attributable to the demoralizing example of a shockingly licentious 
and shameless court ; but in a larger measure, perhaps, should be 
viewed as the natural reaction from the over-stern, repellant Puri- 
tanism of the preceding period. The Puritans undoubtedly erred 
in their indiscriminate and wholesale denunciation of all forms of 
harmless amusement and innocent pleasure. They not only 
rebuked gaming, drinking, and profanity, and stopped bear- 
baiting, 1 but they closed all the theatres, forbade the May-pole 
dances of the people, condemned as paganish the observance of 
Christmas, frowned upon sculpture as idolatrous and indecent, pro- 
nounced it irreligious to eat mince pie, and considered any color 
in dress as utterly incompatible with a proper sense of the serious- 
ness of life. 

Now all this was laying too heavy a burden upon human nature. 
The revolt and reaction came, as come they must. Upon the 
Restoration, society swung to the opposite extreme. In place of 
the solemn-visaged, psalm-singing Roundhead, we have the gay, 
roistering Cavalier. Faith gives place to infidelity, sobriety to 
drunkenness, purity to profligacy, economy to extravagance. Bible- 

1 Macaulay humorously insists that the Puritans opposed bear-baiting not 
because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectator. 



540 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

study, psalm-singing, and exhorting to theatre-going, profanity, and 
carousing. 

The literature of the age is a perfect record of this revolt against 
the " sour severity " of Puritanism, and a faithful reflection of the 
unblushing immorality of the times. 

Butler's Hudibras. — The book most read and praised by 
Charles II. and his court, and the one that best represents the 
spirit of the victorious party, is the satirical poem of Hudibras by 
Samuel Butler. The poem narrates the exploits of Sir Hudibras, 
a pious, hypocritical Presbyterian justice of the peace, and his 
clerk Ralph, an obstinate, fanatical independent, who conceive it 
their duty to undertake a crusade against the games and amuse- 
ments of the people, in the prosecution of which enterprise they 
meet with many and ludicrous adventures. 

The object of the work is to satirize the cant and excesses of 
Puritanism, just as the Don Quixote of Cervantes burlesques the 
extravagances and follies of Chivalry. Butler, however, displays a 
spirit of vindictiveness and hatred towards the object of his wit, of 
which we find no trace in the good-natured Spanish humorist. 
" Much of his ridicule is embittered by prejudice ; but much more 
will retain point as long as cant and hypocrisy continue. Hudi- 
bras is the best burlesque in the English language." — Shaw. 

" The Corrupt Drama." — So immoral and indecent are the 
works of the writers for the stage of this period that they have 
acquired the designation of " the corrupt dramatists." The most 
prominent names in this species of literature are Dryden, Wycherly, 
Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar. By one and all of them vice 
is flaunted in the face of virtue. Almost all their characters are 
atrociously gross and obscene, being utterly devoid of all sense of 
virtue or decency. 1 

1 A clergyman by the name of Jeremy Collier made a vigorous assault 
upon these shameless dramatists, in a work entitled " A Short View of the 
Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage." Dryden was brought to 
repentance; but the others were defiant, and attempted, though unsuccessfully, 
to repel the attack. " The controversy," says Shaw, " resulted in giving a 



THE BILL OF RIGHTS. 54] 

IV. The Orange-Stuarts. 
1. Reign of William and Mary (1689-1702). 

The Bill of Rights. — The Revolution of 1688 and the new 

settlement of the crown upon William and Mary, marks an epoch 
in the constitutional history of England. It settled forever the 
long dispute between king and Parliament — and settled it in 
favor of the latter. The Bill of Rights, — the articles of the Dec- 
laration of Rights framed into a law, — which was one of the earli- 
est acts of the first Parliament under William and Mary, in effect 
" transferred sovereignty from the king to the House of Commons." 
It asserted plainly that the kings of England derive their right and 
title to rule not from the accident of birth, but from the will of the 
people, and declared that Parliament might depose any king, and 
excluding from the throne his heirs, settle the crown anew in 
another family. This uprooted quite thoroughly the pernicious 
doctrine that princes have a divine and inalienable right to the 
throne of their ancestors, and when once seated on that throne 
rule simply as the vicegerents of God, above all human censure 
and control. We shall hear but little more in England of this mon- 
strous theory, 1 which for so long a time overshadowed and threat- 
ened the freedom of the English people. 

Mindful of Charles's attempt to reestablish the Roman Catholic 
worship, the framers of this same famous Bill of Rights further 
declared that all persons holding communion with the Church of 
Rome or uniting in marriage with a papist, should be " forever 
incapable to possess, inherit, or enjoy the crown and government 
of the realm." Since the Revolution of 1688 no Catholic has 
worn the English crown. 

The other provisions of the bill, following closely the language 

better tone to the drama, and to lighter literature in general, and from that 
time there has been a gradual improvement which has given to the readers of 
English the purest modern literature." 

1 There were revivals of it even after the accession of the Hanoverians 
(1714), the doctrine being defended by the High Church party. 



542 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

of the Declaration, forbade the king to levy taxes or keep an army 
in time of peace without the consent of Parliament ; asserted the 
right of the people to petition for redress of grievances and freely 
to choose their representatives ; demanded that Parliament should 
be frequently assembled ; re-affirmed, as one of the ancient privi- 
leges of both Houses, perfect freedom of debate ; forbade the king 
to usurp the functions of the courts of justice; and positively de- 
nied the dispensing power of the crown, that is, the authority 
claimed by the Stuarts of annulling a law by a royal edict. 

All of these provisions now became inwrought into the English 
Constitution, and from this time forward were recognized as part 
of the fundamental law of the realm. 

Settlement of the Revenue. — The articles of the Bill of Rights 
were made effectual by appropriate legislation. One thing which 
had enabled the Tudors and Stuarts to be so independent of 
Parliament was the custom which prevailed of granting to each 
king, at the beginning of his reign, the ordinary revenue of the 
kingdom during his life. This income, with what could be raised 
by gifts, benevolences, monopolies, and similiar expedients, had 
enabled despotic sovereigns to administer the government, wage 
war, and engage in any wild enterprise just as his own individual 
caprice or passion might dictate. All this was now changed. 
Parliament, instead of granting William the revenue for life, re- 
stricted the grant to a single year, and made it a penal offense for 
the officers of the treasury to pay out money otherwise than 
ordered by Parliament. William was much displeased at this 
arrangement, and complained that Parliament imposed less confi- 
dence in him, the preserver of their liberties, than they had placed 
in the Stuart tyrants. But the Houses of Parliament were right; 
and they stood by their resolve. 

We cannot overestimate the importance of this change in the 
English Constitution. It is this control of the purse of the nation 
which has made the House of Commons — for all money-bills 
must originate in the Lower House — the actual seat of govern- 
ment, constituting them the arbiters of peace and war. By simply 



BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 543 

refusing to vote supplies, they can paralyze instantly the arm of 
the king. The necessity, too, of securing the grant of the revenue 
compels the sovereign to summon Parliament annually. Thus the 
frequent calling together of the Lords and Commons is indirectly 
provided for. 

The Mutiny Act. — Another important statute of the first year of 
William and Mary is what is known as the "Mutiny Act." By this 
measure the power of punishing mutiny or desertion on the part 
• of officers or soldiers of the army, or of holding any court-martial, 
was given to the king for twelve months only. This act must be 
renewed annually, otherwise the army would fall to pieces, the 
Soldiers being released from obedience to their officers, and the 
officers from o.bedience to the sovereign. In this way the army is 
■ irought under the control of Parliament, and the frequent assem- 
bling of the representatives of the nation again indirectly secured. 

Thus was the English Constitution, which had been so danger- 

^ously impaired by the violence and tyranny of the later Planta- 
genets, the Tudors, and the Stuarts, restored by the Revolutions of 
1^4.0 and 1688, and every possible safeguard placed about the 
rights and liberties of the English people, and the future stability 
and strength of the English government and the growth and pros- 
perity of the nation thereby secured. 

James attempts to recover the Throne: Battle of the Boyne 
(1690). — The first years of William's reign were disturbed by the 
efforts of James to regain the throne which he had abandoned. 
In these attempts he was aided by Louis XIV., and by the Jacob- 
ites, the name given to the adherents of the exile king. An 
uprising in Scotland in the interest of James was quickly crushed ; 
but the suppression of the Jacobite party in Ireland was a more 
difficult work. There the Catholics rallied enthusiastically about 
the Stuart banner. James himself went over to the island, and 
Louis aided the movement with arms and soldiers. In 1690 
William assumed the personal direction of the campaign against 
the insurrectionists, and in the decisive Battle of the Boyne gained 
a great victory over them. When James, who was watching the 



544 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

fight, ■ — from a distance, — saw that the field was lost, he fled to 
the coast and embarked for France. His deserted soldiers, 
ashamed of the cowardice of their leader, and filled with admira- 
tion for the bravery of William, who, though wounded, kept his 
place at the head of his men, proposed to the English that they 
should change kings with them, and then they would fight them 
over again. 

The results of the Battle of the Boyne broke the spirit of revolt, 
and soon all Ireland acknowledged the authority of William. The 
Protestant Irish, or. Orangemen, as they are called, still keep fresh 
the memory of the great victory by the celebration, even in the 
cities of the New World, of the anniversary of the event. 

Plans and Death of William. — The motive which had most 
strongly urged William to respond to the invitation of the English 
revolutionists to assume the crown of England, was his desire to 
turn the arms and resources of that country against the great 
champion of Despotism, and the dangerous neighbor of his own 
native country, Louis XIV. of France. 

The conduct of Louis in lending aid to James in his attempts to 
regain his crown had so inflamed the English that they were 
quite ready to support William in his wars against him, and so the 
English and Dutch sailors fought side by side against the common 
enemy. In 1692 they gained a notable victory over the French 
fleet in the harbor of La Hague, which spread rejoicing through- 
out the two countries. Finally Louis agreed (in the Peace of 
Ryswick, 1697 : see page 498) to recognize W T illiam of Orange as 
the rightful sovereign of England, and to cease endeavoring to 
seat the Stuarts again upon the throne of that country. 

A short time after the Peace of Ryswick, broke out the War of 
the Spanish Succession (see page 498). William, as the uncompro- 
mising foe of the ambitious French king, urged the English to 
enter the war against France. An insolent and perfidious act on 
the part of Louis caused the English people to support their king 
in this plan with great unanimity and heartiness. The matter to 
which we refer was this. 'Jam^s II. having died at just this junc- 



g/L 



UNION OF THE PARLIAMENTS. 545 

ture of affairs, Louis, disregarding his solemn promises, at once 
acknowledged his son, known in history as the " Pretender " as 
" King of Great Britain and Ireland." 

Preparations were now made for the war thus provoked by the 
double sense of danger and insult. In the midst of these prepa- 
rations William was seriously hurt by being thrown from his horse, 
and soon after died in the fifty-second year of his age (1702). 
Mary had preceded him in 1694, and as they left no children, the 
crown descended to the Princess Anne, Mary's sister, now married 
to Prince George of Denmark. 

2. Reign of Queen Anne (1 702-1 714). 

War of the Spanish Succession (1 701-17 14). — The War of 
the Spanish Succession covered the whole of the reign of Queen 
Anne. Of the causes and results of this war, and of England's 
part in it, we have spoken in connection with the reign of Louis 
XIV. (see page 498) ; and so, referring the reader to the account 
of the contest there given, we shall pass to speak of another event 
of a domestic character which signalized the reign of Queen Anne. 

Union of the Parliaments of England and Scotland (1 707) . — 
We refer to the union of England and Scotland into a single king- 
dom, under the name of Great Britain (1707). It was only the 
two crowns that were united when James I. came to the English 
throne : now the two parliaments are united. From this time 
forward the two countries were represented by one Parliament, 
and the name " British " becomes the common designation of the 
inhabitants of England, Wales, and Scotland. 

The union was advantageous to both countries ; for it was a 
union not simply of hands, but of hearts. England's constant and 
costly watch through ten centuries of her northern frontiers against 
raid and invasion could now be intermitted. The thorn in her 
side, which the meddlesome hand of France was constantly press- 
ing, was now removed. A chief cause of weakness and annoy- 
ance was turned into an element of strength. 

Equally beneficial was the measure to Scotland. Her connec- 



546 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

tion with the manufacturing and commercial enterprises of Eng- 
land resulted in a wonderful expansion of her national energies 
and resources. Manufactories sprang up on every side, insignificant 
towns grew suddenly into great centres of trade and population, 
and agriculture was improved, so that in less than half a century 
the whole aspect of the country underwent an entire transforma- 
tion. 

Death of Queen Anne. — Queen Anne died in the year 1714, 
leaving no heirs. (£ In the reign of William a statute known as the 
Act of Settlement 1 had provided that the crown, in default of heirs 
of William and Anne, should descend to the Electress Sophia of 
Hanover (grandchild of James I.), or her heirs, "being Protes- 
tants." The Electress died only a short time before the death of 
Queen Anne ; so, upon that event, the crown descended upon the 
head of the Electress' eldest son George, who thus became the 
founder of a new line of English sovereigns, the House of Han- 
over, or Brunswick, the family in whose hands the royal sceptre 
still remains. 

Literature under Queen Anne. 

Literature forced into the Service of Politics. — The reign of 
Queen Anne is an illustrious one in English literature. Under her 
began to write a group of brilliant authors, whose activity contin- 
ued on into the reign of her successor George I. Their produc- 
tions are, many of them, of special interest to the historian, 
because during this period there was an unusually close connection 
between literature and politics. Literature was forced into the 
service of party. A large portion of the writings of the era is in 
the form of political pamphlets, wherein all the resources of wit, 
satire, and literary skill are exhausted in defending or ridiculing 
the opposing principles and policies of W T hig and Tory. 

1 The most important articles of this Act of Settlement after that determin- 
ing the succession, were one providing that after the accession of the House 
of Hanover no one should wear the crown unless a communicant of the An- 
glican Church, and another providing that the judges should hold office dur- 
ing good behavior, not simply at the will of the king, as hitherto. 



'J' J IF. WRITERS. 5 17 

The Writers. — The four most prominent and representative 
authors of the times were Pope, Swift, Addison, and Defoe. The 

first three were satirists, Pope and Swift being satirists of the 
malignant type. 

Alexander Pope (16S8-1744) was deformed in body and tem- 
per. He could not live in peace with his brother authors. His 
poem of the Dunciad, in which he chastises his literary enemies, 
has been pronounced "the most powerful literary satire that exists 
in the whole range of literature." His Essay on Man and Essay 
on Criticism are, however, written in a different mood. They fairly 
sparkle with brilliant gems. 

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is best known as the author of 
Gulliver's Travels, " a vast and all-embracing satire upon humanity 
itself." Many of his political pamphlets, of which he wrote an 
incredible number, first on the side of the Whigs and then on that 
of the Tories, are most remarkable productions. 1 1 is Conduct of 
the .-lilies, opposing the continuance of the War of the Spanish 
Succession, is declared to have produced a profounder impression 
than any other pamphlet ever written. Perhaps it would not be 
an exaggeration to say that it rendered the further prosecution of 
the war on the part of the English government impossible. His 
D rapier's Letters, the object of which was to thwart an attempt of 
the government to circulate a new coin in Ireland, so stirred up 
the Irish people that the scheme had to be abandoned. 

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) was the gentlest of satirists, one 
who could rebuke the faults and follies of society without injecting 
into his writings, as both Pope and Swift did inject into theirs, the 
venom of contempt and hate. His fame was first established by 
his poem entitled The Campaign, which he had been solicit 
write by the Prime Minister, in commemoration of Marlborough's 
great victory of Blenheim. But the most numerous and valuable 
of Addison's writings are his contributions, in the form oi short 
essays on every variety of subjects, to the Taller, the Speei 
and the Guardian, little journals established by Richard Steele, 
himself a graceful and versatile writer. In these tiny periodicals 
we find the prototype of the modern newspaper and magazine. 



548 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Daniel Defoe (1661-1731), famous as the author of Robinson 
Crusoe, was one of the ablest and most effective of the political 
pamphleteers of the period. He wrote on the side of the Whigs. 
The most noted perhaps of his pamphlets was one on toleration, 
entitled The Shortest Way with Dissenters. This "shortest way" 
was to hang the preachers and banish all who listened to them. Of 
course the whole thing was designed as an argument against intol- 
erance, with special reference to the persecuting spirit of the 
Established Church ; but such was Defoe's incomparable skill in 
making everything he wrote appear like soberest narrative or argu- 
ment when it was very far from being either, that the Churchmen 
did not understand the matter until it was explained to them. 
Then they were angry enough, and the audacious author was made 
to atone for his fault by standing in the pillory. 

In a poem called The True-born Englishman Defoe extols the 
services of King William, defends him against the prejudices of 
his new subjects, and makes plain that every true-born Englishman 
should render him grateful and loving allegiance. 

In the scientific annals of the period the name of Sir Isaac New- 
ton (1642-1727) is most prominent. As the discoverer of the 
law of gravitation and the author of the Principia, his name will 
ever retain a high place among those few who belong through their 
genius or achievements to no single nation or age, but to the 
world. 



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IVAN THE TERRIBLE. S49 



CHAPTER III. 

THE RISE OF RUSSIA: PETER THE GREAT (i 682-1 725). 

General Remarks. — We left Russia at the close of the Middle 
Ages a semi-savage, semi-Asiatic power, so hemmed in by barba- 
rian lands and hostile races as to be almost entirely cut off from 
intercourse with the civilized world. In the present chapter we 
wish to tell how she pushed her lines out to the seas on every 
side, — to the Caspian, the Euxine, and the Baltic. The main 
interest of our story gathers about Peter the Great, whose almost 
superhuman strength and energy lifted the great barbarian nation 
to a prominent place among the powers of Europe. 

Ivan the Terrible (1 533-1 584). — The most noteworthy name 
among the rulers of Russia after the opening of the modern era is 
that of Ivan IV., surnamed the "Terrible," on account of his many 
cruel and revengeful acts. While yet a child of thirteen years he 
caused a boyer, or noble, who had offended him to be torn in 
pieces in his presence by dogs. Towards the close of his reign he 
killed his eldest son with a blow of his iron staff. At Novgorod, 
in punishment for a supposed conspiracy of the nobles, he put to 
death over 1.500 persons. He had "spasms of remorse" for his 
deeds, and then would clothe himself in the garb of a penitent, 
march in the priestly processions, pray himself and ask the prayers 
of others for the repose of the souls of his victims. At one time 
he made out a list of 3,470 persons whom he had killed, and asked 
for them the special prayers of the Church. But in judging Ivan, 
we ought, as Rambaud fairly urges, to try him by the standards of 
his own time, and not to forget that " the sixteenth century is the 



550 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

century of Henry the Eighth, of Ferdinand the Catholic, of Cath- 
erine de Medici, of the Inquisition, and of Saint Batholomew." 

But Ivan, notwithstanding his terrible disposition, did much to 
extend and consolidate the Russian dominions. He wrested from 
the Tartars Kazan (1552) and Astrakan (1554), and thus gained 
possession of the entire length of the Volga, — the most impor- 
tant highway of- commerce within the Russian empire, — and ex- 
tended the limits of his dominions to the shores of the Caspian. 
"In the Russian annals," says Rambaud, "the expedition of 
Kazan occupies the same glorious place as the defeat of Abder- 
rahman in the history of the Franks." From that day to this Russia 
has steadily pushed the Turanian peoples back from their conquests 
in Europe, and as steadily encroached upon their domains in 
Asia. 

Ivan also attempted to force his way through to the Baltic and 
the Black Sea, but Russia had not yet sufficient strength for these 
great undertakings. They were reserved for the energy and 
genius of Peter the Great and Catherine II. Before the death of 
Ivan, however, the Ural Mountains were explored and their great 
mineral resources discovered, and the conquest of Siberia fairly 
begun. 

During this reign an exploring expedition from England, while 
searching for a northwest passage to China, discovered the White 
Sea. The result of the expedition was the founding of the port of 
Archangel, through which place the English began to carry on 
trade with Russia. Embassies were exchanged, and the Czar pro- 
posed to marry a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, and further sought 
to conclude a treaty with the Queen whereby each should engage 
to give the other an asylum in case rebellion or misfortune of any 
kind should drive either of them into exile. Elizabeth replied 
graciously, but declined to enter into the reciprocal arrangement, 
explaining to the Czar that there were, " by the grace of God, no 
dangers of the sort in her dominions." 

In 1547 Ivan assumed the title of Czar, — probably a contrac- 
tion of Caesar, — the adoption of which title shows his ambition to 



THE CONQUEST OF SIBERIA. 551 

be regarded as the successor of the last Emperor of Constantinople. 
He maintained that " if Constantinople had been the second, Mos- 
cow was the third Rome, the living heir of the Eternal City." 

The Conquest of Siberia. — One of the most noteworthy matters 
relating to Russian history during the seventeenth century is the 
conquest of Siberia, to which enterprise we have just referred as 
having been commenced under Ivan the Terrible. This immense 
region was brought under Russian domination in very much the 
same way that, during the preceding century, so large a part of the 
New World was annexed to the Spanish crown. It was explored, 
conquered, and colonized by just such bands of adventurers as took 
possession of Mexico and Peru ; only here it was not gold and 
silver, the wealth of barbaric empires, but furs and walrus ivory 
that drew on the hunters and freebooters " from river to river, and 
from headland to headland." The conquest, or exploration, or 
colonization, by whichever name it may be preferred to designate 
this march of Russia upon Asia, was begun in 1580, and in little 
more than half a century — by 1639 — the Cossack horsemen 
were standing upon the eastern shores of Asia and gazing out upon 
the Pacific. 1 

The conquest or occupation of Northern Asia having been 
effected in the manner indicated, — the Czar often having only the 
vaguest idea of what was going on while half a continent was being 
taken possession of in his name, — it was inevitable that the rec- 
ord of the work should, like that of the Spanish conquests in the 
New World, be one of crime, oppression, and outrage. In the 
name of the Czar and of the Cross, the representatives of Ru>>ian 
civilization " slew, plundered, and burned their way from one side 
of Asia to the other without pity or remorse." 

It remained for Russia to complete during the eighteenth and 
nineteenth centuries the work begun in the seventeenth, — to 

1 It was almost exactly one century later, in 1740, that the explorer Behring, 
having sometime before discovered the strait which bears his name, sighted 
the tall form of Mount St. Elias, and by right of discovery added the north- 
western portion of North America to the possessions of the I 



552 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

explore the Siberian coast-line ; to establish the Russian boundary 
in the valley of the Amoor ; to follow the Siberian rivers to their 
sources among the Altai Mountains, and to take possession of the 
rich mineral- bearing regions about their heads ; to beat into sub- 
jection the Khans of Turkestan, and to push the Russian frontier 
as far as possible towards Persia and India. 

Beginning of the House of Romanof (1613). — The line of the 
old Norseman Ruric ended in 1589. Then followed a period of 
confusion and of foreign invasion, known as the Troublous Times, 
during which the Poles, the hereditary enemies of the Russians, 
succeeded in placing one of their own princes upon the Russian 
throne, after which, in 16 13, Michael Romanof, the first of the 
family that bears his name, was chozen Czar. The House of 
Romanof held the throne until 1762. 
. .. Accession of Peter the Great (1682). — For more than half a 
century after the accession of the Romanofs, there is little either 
in the genius or deeds of any of the line calculated to draw our 
special attention. But towards the close of the seventeenth cen- 
tury there ascended the Russian throne a man of such capacity 
and energy and achievement as instantly to draw the gaze of the 
world, and who has elicited the admiration and wonder of all suc- 
ceeding generations. This was Peter I., universally known as 
Peter the Great, one of the remarkable characters of history. 

When Peter came to the throne in 1682 he was only ten years 
of age, so the government was conducted by his step-sister Sophia, 
in the name of Peter and of a blind, imbecile, elder half-brother, 
named Ivan, whom the Strelitzes, or national guards, insisted 
should share the sovereignty with Peter. 

His Boyhood. — Peter was a strong, eager boy, with a bent for 
mechanics and military and naval affairs. He was constantly 
devising ingenious fireworks, arranging sham-fights with play- 
soldiers, and engaging in boat-building, thus in every way possible 
illustrating the proverb that the boy is father to the man. 

When he was only eleven years of age he organized a play-regi- 
ment of his comrades, he himself taking the position of a bombar- 



HIS PLANS. 553 

dier. At a great expenditure of labor he caused a fort to be 
built, in order that his young soldiers might be exercised in all the 
manoeuvres of a regular siege and assault. This play-regiment 
and this mimic war were the beginning of the reorganized Russian 
army, and the precursor of campaigns that concerned the world. 

Peter's interest in naval affairs was greatly increased by a discov- 
ery which he made in 16S8, while wandering over one of his 
estates. In an old building, stowed away amidst heaps of rubbish, 
he found an old English boat, which, in answer to his inquiries, he 
was told would go both with and against the wind. He at once 
had the boat repaired, and launching it upon a convenient stream, 
with his own hand upon the helm eagerly navigated it up and 
down the the river. Very soon Peter had mechanics at work 
making others upon the same model. This was the beginning of the 
Russian navy. The little model is still carefully preserved at St. 
Petersburg, and is known as the " Grandsire of the Russian Fleet/' 

In 1689, when only seventeen years of age, Peter, convinced 
that Sophia was intriguing to secure for herself the crown, caused 
her to be deposed and shut her up in a convent, while he, in con- 
nection with Ivan, who naturally yielded to his stronger brother in 
everything, assumed the responsibilities of government. 

His Plans. — At this time the dominions of the Czar possessed 
only one seaport, Archangel, on the White Sea, which harbor for 
a large part of the year was sealed against vessels by the extreme 
cold of that high latitude. Russia consequently had no marine 
commerce ; there was no word for fleet in the Russian language. 
Nor had she manufactures of any note. The Russians were 
simply a great barbarian nation, " less civilized than the Mexicans 
when discovered by Cortez." 

Now Peter, who had and could have only rude Asiatic ideas of 
government, looked upon this great savage empire which he had 
inherited, very much as a man regards his private estate. It 
was his; he owned it; and he would set himself to develop its 
resources, to open it up to its neighbors, and in every way to 
improve it and make it a more valuable royal possession. He saw 



554 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

clearly that his first need was outlets upon the sea. " ' It is not 
land I want, but water/ " he said, "as he reached out after sea- 
coast." Hence his first aim was to wrest the Baltic shore from 
the grasp of Sweden, and the Euxine from the hands of the Turks. 

The Conquest of Azof (1696). — In 1695 Peter, with the dec- 
laration, "We are now going to play the real game of war," sailed 
down the Don and made an attack upon Azof, the key to the 
Black Sea, but was unsuccessful. The next year, however, repeat- 
ing the attempt, he succeeded, and thus gained his first harbor on 
the south. 

This same year his brother Ivan died, leaving the sole sover- 
eignty in Peter, whose real reign may be regarded as beginning 
now. 

No sooner had Peter secured his new harbor than he set in 
earnest about the construction of a fleet (1696-7), in which enter- 
prise he was aided by shipwrights whom he had called from 
Venice and other western states. So energetically was the work 
pushed that in less than two years a great fleet of war-ships was 
floating upon the streams running to the Azof. 

Peter's First Visit to the West (1697-1698). — With a view 
to advancing his naval projects, Peter about this time sent a large 
number of young Russian nobles to Italy, Holland, and England 
to acquire in those countries a knowledge of naval affairs, forbid- 
ding them to return before they had become good sailors. 

Not satisfied with thus sending to foreign parts his young nobil- 
ity, Peter formed the somewhat startling resolution of going abroad 
himself, and learning the art of ship-building by personal experi- 
ence in the dockyards of Holland. Accordingly, in the year 1697, 
leaving the government in the hands of three nobles, he set out 
incognito for the Netherlands. Upon arrival there he proceeded 
to Zaandam, a place a short distance from Amsterdam, and there 
hired out as a common laborer to a Dutch ship-builder. 

Notwithstanding his disguise it was well enough known who the 
stranger was. Indeed there was but little chance of Peter's being 
mistaken for a Dutchman. The way in which he flew about, and 



PETER'S FIRST VISIT TO THE WEST. 555 

the terrible energy with which he did everything, and his " ever- 
lasting questions," "What is that?" "How dots that work?" set 
him quite apart from the easy-going, phlegmatic Hollanders. 

To escape the annoyance of the crowds at Zaandam, Peter left 
the place, and went to the docks of the East India Company in 
Amsterdam, who set about building a frigate that he might see the 
whole process of constructing a vessel from the beginning. Here 
he worked for four months, being known among his fellow- work- 
men as Baas or Master Peter. 

"When fully established he wrote back to friends in Russia, " We 
are now in the Netherlands, in the town of Amsterdam, and, 
following the divine command given to our forefather Adam, are 
hard at work. What we do is not for any need, but for the sake 
of learning navigation, so that, having mastered it thoroughly, we 
can, when we return, be victorious over the enemies of Jesus 
Christ, and liberators of the Christians who live under them, which 
I shall not cease to work for until my latest breath." 

It was not alone the art of naval architecture in which Peter 
interested himself; he attended lectures on anatomy, studied 
surgery, gaining some skill in pulling teeth and bleeding, inspected 
paper-mills, flour-mills, printing-presses, and factories, and visited 
cabinets, hospitals, and museums, thus acquainting himself with 
every industry and art that he thought might be advantageously 
introduced into his own country. It is said that Peter came to 
know well fourteen trades. 

From Holland Master Peter went to England to study her 
superior naval establishment. Here he was fittingly received by 
King William III., who had presented Peter while in Holland with 
a splendid yacht fully armed, and who now made his guest ex- 
tremely happy by getting up for him a sham sea-fight. 

Besides examining ships and dock-yards. Peter gave his atten- 
tion to almost every English institution. He is said to have been 
much astonished at the number of lawyers at the Westminster 
courts, declaring that he had " only two at home and meant to 
hang one of them as soon as he got back." And yet this bold 



556 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

autocrat was so shy that he would not go into the Parliament 
chambers, but inspected that body through a hole in the ceiling. 

Peter remained in England four months, a great part of the 
time being spent in the same labors that had occupied him in the 
Netherlands. When he came to leave the country, he is said to 
have carelessly drawn from his pocket a roll of brown paper which 
he handed King William, and which on being opened was found 
to contain a large diamond in the rough. 

While in England Peter gathered a company of several hundred 
engineers, captains, surgeons, mechanics, and persons learned in 
the various sciences, and by magnificent promises — which the 
truth requires us to say were very badly fulfilled — induced them 
to go to Russia to help him build fleets, train soldiers, cut canals, 
and Europeanize his country. 

Returning from England to Holland, Peter went thence to 
Vienna, intending to visit Italy ; but hearing of an insurrection at 
home, he set out in haste for Moscow. 
"~ Peter's Reforms. — The revolt which had hastened Peter's 
return from the West was an uprising among the Strelitzes, a body 
of soldiers numbering 20,000 or 30,000, organized by Ivan the 
Terrible as a sort of imperial body-guard. In their ungovernable 
turbulence they remind us of the Pretorians of the Roman Empe- 
rors, or the Janizaries of the Turkish Sultans. The present mutiny 
had been instigated probably by the mischievous Sophia ; but it 
had been suppressed before Peter's arrival, so that there was 
nothing now remaining for him to do save the meting out of pun- 
ishment to the ring-leaders, of whom a thousand or more Avere put 
to death with the cruelest tortures. Peter is even accused of 
having beheaded some of the wretches with his own hands ; it is 
certain that he forced the nobles of his court to act as executioners 
and strike off the heads of the condemned. Sophia, who, as we 
have intimated, was suspected of being concerned in the plot, was 
compelled to take religious vows, which act effectually removed 
her from the sphere of politics. 

This revolt settled Peter in his determination to rid himself 



PETER'S REFORMS. 557 

altogether of the insolent and turbulent Strelitzes. A royal edict 
disbanded those regiments that had had any part in the uprising ; 
a subsequent revolt led to the abolition of the remaining regiments. 
Thus at a blow did the resolute Peter destroy a power that had 
come to overshadow the throne itself, and to make the Czar a 
puppet in its hands. The place of the Strelitzes was taken by a 
well-disciplined force trained according to the tactics of the West- 
ern nations. 

The disbanding of the dangerous Strelitzes was only one of the 
many reforms effected by Peter. So intent was he upon thoroughly 
Europeanizing his country, that he resolved that his subjects should 
literally clothe themselves in the " garments of Western civiliza- 
tion." Accordingly he abolished the long-sleeved, long-skirted 
robes that were at this time worn, and decreed that everybody save 
the clergy should shave, or pay a tax on his beard of from two 
cents to two hundred dollars, according to his rank. But Peter's 
subjects were loth to part either with their skirts or their beards. 
which latter were as sacred in the eyes of all good Muscovites as is 
the queue in the estimation of Chinamen. We are told that Peter 
cut off with his own hands the offending sleeves and beards of his 
reluctant courtiers, and, in imitation — unconscious imitation, we 
may believe — of Queen Elizabeth of England in her war upon the 
extravagant ruffs of her times, stationed tailors and barbers at the 
gates of Moscow to cut off the skirts and train the beards of those 
who had not conformed to the royal regulations. The law was 
gradually relaxed, but the reform became so general that in the 
best society in Russia at the present day one sees only smooth 
faces and the Western style of dress. 

Peter also reformed the Russian calendar by making the year 
begin January i instead of September i, in which month the Rus- 
sians had begun the year for the reason that they thought it probable 
that God made the world in the fall when the fruits were ripe. 

As additional outgrowths of what he had seen, or heard, or had 
suggested to him on his foreign tour, Peter issued a new coinage, 
introduced schools, built factories, constructed roads and canals, 



558 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

established a postal system, opened mines, framed laws modeled 
after those of the West, and reformed the government of the towns 
in such a way as to give the citizens some voice in the management 
of their local affairs, as he had observed was done in the Nether- 
lands and in England. 

Charles XII. of Sweden. — Peter's history now becomes inter- 
twined with that of a man quite as remarkable as himself, Charles 
XII. of Sweden, the " Madman of the North," of whom Voltaire 
says, that he was " the most extraordinary personage, perhaps, that 
ever appeared in the world." 1 Charles was but fifteen years of 
age when, in 1697, the death of his father called him to the Swe- 
dish throne. The dominions which came under his sway embraced 
not only Sweden, but Finland, and large possession along the 
Southern Baltic, territory that had been won by the arms of his 
ancestors. 

Taking advantage of Charles's extreme youth, three sovereigns, 
Frederick IV. of Denmark, Augustus the Strong, Elector of Sax- 
ony and King of Poland, and Peter the Great of Russia, leagued 
against him (1700), for the purpose of appropriating such portions 
of his dominions as they might severally desire to annex to their 
own. 

The Battle of Narva (1700). — But the conspirators had 
formed a wrong estimate of the young Swedish monarch. Not- 
withstanding the insane follies in which he was accustomed to 

1 Innumerable stories, which for the most part seem well enough founded, 
are related of the precocious sayings and wild doings of this strange and erratic 
person. While yet a child he said to his tutor, " I could wish to resemble 
Alexander"; and upon being told that Alexander lived only thirty-two years, 
he rejoined, "And is not that long enough for one who has conquered king- 
doms?" The first two or three years of his reign, during which the govern- 
ment was conducted by a regent, were filled by the boy-king with madcap 
follies, such as beheading sheep, as a sword exercise, in the palace chambers, 
and flinging the heads out of the windows, " to the astonishment of passers- 
by"; breaking into pieces at the close of a banquet the dishes and furniture, 
and pitching the fragments through the closed windows; smashing the furni- 
ture in the royal chapel, and similar exploits. 



THE FOUNDING OF ST. PETERSBURG. >'r>') ' 

indulge, he possessed talent ; especially had he a remarkable apti- 
tude for military affairs. " He loved war as other youths love a 
mistress," and was eager to measure his strength with that of 
his assailants. " I am resolved," said he, " never to begin an unjust 
war, but never to finish a just one but with the destruction of 
my enemies." 

With a well-trained force — a veteran army that had not yet 
forgotten the discipline of the hero Gustavus Adolphus — Charles 
now threw himself first upon the Danes, and in two weeks forced 
the Danish king to sue for peace; then he turned his little army 
of 8,000 men upon the Russian forces of 20,000, which wen 
besieging the city of Narva, on the Gulf of Finland, and inflicted 
upon them a most ignominious defeat. The only comment of the 
imperturbable Peter upon the disaster was, " The Swedes will have 
the advantage of us at first, but they will teach us how to beat 
them." 

The Founding of St. Petersburg (1703). — After chastising 
the Czar at Narva, the Swedish king turned south and marched 
into Poland to punish Augustus for the part he had taken in the 
conspiracy against him. While Charles was busied in this quarter, 
Peter, having made good by strenuous exertions his loss in men 
and arms at Narva, was gradually making himself master of the 
Swedish lands on the Baltic, and upon a marshy island at the 
mouth of the Neva was laying the foundations of the famous city 
of Petersburg, which he proposed to make the western gateway of 
his empire. 

The spot selected by Peter as the site of his new capital was low 
and subject to inundation, 1 so that the labor requisite to make it 
fit for building purposes was simply enormous. But difficulties 
never dismayed Peter. He gathered workmen from all parts of 
his dominions, cut down and dragged to the spot whole forests 
for piles and buildings, and caused a city to rise as if by magic 

1 Peter tells us of an inundation which occurred in 1706. "It was amus- 
ing," he writes, " to see how the people sat on roofs and trees, just as in the 
time of the Deluge." 



560 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

from the morasses. The lack of stone and other good building 
material was met by every cart entering the place and every vessel 
visiting the port, being compelled to bring a certain quantity of 
stone, brick, or gravel. - More than 100,000 workmen are said to 
have perished during the first few years of the work. This is 
doubtless an exaggeration, yet an exaggeration which shows at 
how great a cost the capital was built. But in spite of difficulties 
the work was done, and the splendid city stands to-day one of the 
most impressive monuments of the indomitable and despotic 
energy of Peter. 

The selection of the site of St. Petersburg was doubtless a mis- 
take, it being too far north for a harbor, and too distant from the 
heart of Russia for the seat of government ; and hence, as many 
prophesy, the deserted city of Moscow may some time in the 
future again become the capital, unless, indeed, Constantinople, 
towards which the Russian rulers have ever cast longing glances, 
shall prevent this by itself becoming the imperial city of the Czars. 

Invasion of Russia by Charles XII. — Meanwhile Charles 
was doing very much as he pleased with the king of Poland. He 
defeated his forces, overran his dominions, and forced him to 
surrender the Polish crown in favor of Stanislaus Lesczinski (1706). 
With sufficient punishment meted out to Frederick Augustus, 
Charles was ready to turn his attention once more to the Czar. 
So marvelous had been the success attendant upon his arms for the 
past few years, nothing now seemed impossible to him. Deluded 
by this belief, he resolved to march into Russia and dethrone the 
Czar even as he had dethroned the king of Poland. Not daring 
to reveal his plans to any one, but still requiring a sketch of the 
route to Moscow, he ordered his quarter-master to prepare a chart 
showing the best routes " to all the capitals of Europe." The 
officer obeyed, making most prominent the route to Stockholm, 
the meaning of which Charles at once understood, but told the 
prudent quarter-master that that was not the road he was going 
to travel at present. 

In 1 708, with an army of barely 40,000 men, Charles marched 



END OF CHARLES'S CAREER. 561 

boldly across the Russian frontier. For a moment even : 
himself seemed disconcerted by the boldness of the movement, and 
sent proposals of peace. But Charles's reply to Peter's messengers 
was, " I will treat with the Czar at Moscow." This haughty answer 
recalled Peter to himself, and he is said to have remarked, " My 
brother Charles affects to act Alexander, but he shall not find me 
Darius." 

It was a terrible march that the Swedes made, a march something 
like that of the Grand Army under Napoleon a century later. The 
Russian tactics were almost the same now as then, the villages 
being abandoned and burned, and the entire country made a desert 
in front of the advancing Swedes. 

Thus impeded in his march, Charles suddenly gave up his di- 
rect advance upon Moscow, and turned south into the Ukraine, 
whither he was drawn by the treachery to the Czar of the Cossack 
hetman Mazeppa. But the Cossacks in general remained faithful 
in their allegiance, and Charles found himself obliged to pass in a 
hostile country one of the most terrible winters Europe had ever 
experienced. 

The Battle of Pultowa (1709). — Finally Charles laid siege to 
the town of Pultowa. Peter marched to its relief, and the two 
armies met in decisive combat in front of the place. It was 
Charles's Waterloo. The Swedish army was virtually annihilated. 
Escaping with a few followers from the field, Charles fled south- 
ward, and found an asylum in Turkey. 

End of Charles's Career. — Among the Turks Charles acted in 
a manner which justified the title given him of the " Madman of 
the North." While in the Ottoman dominions he was provided 
with a residence and treated as a guest of the Sultan, whose 
hospitality he most shamefully requited. At first he busied him- 
self in persuading the Sultan to lead an army against the Czar. 
The expedition was successful, and Peter seemed on the brink of 
irretrievable ruin, from which peril, however, he was delivered by 
fortunate negotiations, which enabled him to withdraw his army 
from a seemingly inextricable position, but only on condition of 
his giving up Azof ( 1 7 1 1 ) . 



562 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

When Charles learned that the Turkish vizier had allowed the 
Czar to escape instead of making him a prisoner, he was quite be- 
side himself with rage, and heaped upon that official all sorts of abuse 
and insult. The imperturbable vizier simply remarked, " It would 
not answer for all the sovereigns to be away from their kingdoms 
at the same time." Charles's council of regency seem to have 
been of somewhat the same mind, for it was about this time they 
sent urgent requests for him to return, to which messages he sent 
back reply that he would send them one of his boots to represent 
him. 

After about two years had passed, the Turks tired of their guest, 
and requested him to make ready to return to Sweden. But 
Charles refused to go, and finally the Sultan was forced to send a 
small army to remove him forcibly. Charles now barricaded his 
house, which was at a place called Bender, in Bessarabia, and 
with a handful of domestics and companions kept the whole Tur- 
kish army at bay for some time, he himself performing such prodi- 
gies of daring, that he is declared to have killed twenty Turks with 
his own sword. 

Finally, in 1714, having been in Turkey five years, Charles was 
started on his journey home through Germany. Upon his arrival 
in Sweden he found his kingdom shorn of almost all its provinces 
beyond sea, and everything in great disorder. With characteristic 
recklessness he almost straightway plunged into a war with Norway, 
and was finally killed at Frederickshall, while besieging that place 

(1718). 

Such was the end of the meteoric career of the strangest char- 
acter of the eighteenth century. At the moment of his death 
Charles was only thirty-six years of age. Perhaps we can under- 
stand him best by regarding him, as his biographer Voltaire sug- 
gests, as an old Norse sea-king born ten centuries after his time. 

Condemnation of the Czarowitch Alexis. — The very year that 
witnessed the close of the wild career of Charles XII. marked an 
event of deep and painful interest in the life of Peter the Great. 
This was the culmination of a long- existing quarrel between him 



CLOSE OF PETER'S REIGN. 563 

and the Czarowitch Alexis. The root of this trouble between 
lather and son was that Alexis was a weak, dissolute youth, without' 
any sympathy with his lather's reforms, but rather, through his edu- 
cation, which Peter had left to others, wedded to the old order of 
things. Peter, fearing that all his work would be undone should 
this son come to the throne, wished to set aside his claims. 

After laboring a long time for the reformation of his son, Peter 
finally gave him the alternative of straightway manifesting a be- 
coming interest in public affairs, or, renouncing all claims to the 
throne, of entering a monastery. Alexis fled from the severity of 
his father and placed himself under the protection of the German 
emperor, who sent him to Naples ; but on promise of forgiveness 
he was induced to return to Moscow. Peter now broke his word 
with him, and he was tried, tortured, and condemned to death for 
disobedience, conspiracy, and general contumacy. Before Peter 
could bring himself to sign the sentence of the tribunal appointed 
to try the case, the unhappy prince died of fright, combined with 
the effects of the tortures he had undergone (-t-64-S). / 7/^ 

Peter has been severely censured for his treatment of his son 
and heir. Doubtless the treatment was harsh. Simple disinheri- 
tance would have been sufficient punishment for the faults of the 
prince. But then, had his life been spared, the security of the 
succession upon Peter's death would have been threatened. There 
was a large and powerful party bitterly opposed to the new policy 
of innovation and reform, and these reactionists would certainly 
have disputed the accession to the throne of any other person than 
Alexis. It was this which led Peter to desire the death of the 
Czarowitch. He thought thereby to insure the perpetuation of his 
policy and to secure to Russia the fruit of his life-work. We can 
thus explain, though we may not justify, his action. 

Close of Peter's Reign. — Peter's eventful reign was now draw- 
ing to a close. In 1721 the Swedish wars which had so long dis- 
turbed FAirope were brought to an end by the Peace of Nystadt, 
which confirmed Russia's title to all the Southern Baltic lands that 
Peter had wrested from the Swedes. The undisputed possession 



564 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

of so large a strip of the Baltic sea-board vastly increased the 
importance arfd influence of Russia, which now assumed a place 
among the leading European powers. It was at this time that the 
Russian Senate and Synod conferred upon Peter the titles of Great, 
Emperor, and Father of his Country. 

In 1723 troubles in Persia that resulted in the massacre of some 
Russians afforded Peter a pretext for sailing down the Volga and 
seizing the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, which now became 
virtually a Russian lake. This ended Peter's conquests. The 
Russian colossus now " stood astride, with one foot on the Baltic 
and the other upon the Caspian." 

Two years later, being then in his fifty-fourth year, Peter died of 
a fever brought on by exposure while aiding in the rescue of some 
sailors in distress, in the Gulf of Finland (1725). / <?'j 

Peter's Character and Work. — Peter's character stands re- 
vealed in the light of his splendid achievements. Like Charle- 
magne he was a despotic reformer. His theory of government 
was a rough, brutal one, yet the exclamation which broke from 
him as he stood by the tomb of Richelieu 1 discloses his profound 
desire to rule well: "Thou great man," he exclaimed, "I would 
have given thee half of my dominion to have learned of thee how 
to govern the other half." He planted throughout his vast em- 
pire the seeds of Western civilization, and by his giant strength 
lifted the great nation which destiny had placed in his hands, out 
of Asiatic barbarism into the society of the European peoples. 
And yet, he himself being judge, he was unable to achieve that 
greater triumph which would best have justified the title that sets 
him apart from his fellow sovereigns : overtaken in a fault, he ex- 
claimed in reproachful self- confession, " I reform my country, but 
am not able to reform myself." 

The influence of Peter's life and work upon the government of 
Russia was very different from what he intended. It is true that 
his aggressive, arbitrary rule strengthened temporarily autocratic 

1 In 171 6 Peter made a second journey to the West, visiting France, Den- 
mark, and Holland. 



MEMORIALS OF THE GREAT CZAR. 565 

government in Russia. He destroyed all checks, ecclesiastical 
and military, upon the absolute power of the crown. But in 
bringing into his dominions Western civilization, he introduced 
influences which were destined in time to neutralize all he had 
done in the way of strengthening the basis of despotism. He 
introduced a civilization which fosters popular liberties, and under- 
mines personal, despotic government. " No avowed champion of 
the people, aided by the most favorable circumstances," says 
Noble, " could have done such effective battle for Russian liberties 
as that compassed by the champion of absolute power. . . . Peter 
was the first to fairly roll Russian tyranny in the Nessus-shirt of 
European civilization. This was the reformer's real significance 
for the national life." l 

Memorials of the Great Czar. — Actuated by the sentiment that 
has ever led mankind to cherish memorials of its heroes, the Rus- 
sians have preserved with religious care numberless relics of their 
great Czar. At the capital is still to be seen the little cabin in 
which he lived while laying the foundations of that city. There 
also is preserved the little skiff to which we have already referred 
as the Grandsire of the Russian fleet. And here too are shown 
his copy-books, which, while exhibiting careless writing and faulty 
grammar, bear evidence to the ardor and resolution with which 
the boy worked upon his first lessons. At Zaandam in Holland, 
preserved inside another building, is the small hut occupied by 
Peter while at that place. But perhaps the most impressive mon- 
ument of all is the colossal equestrian statue erected by Catherine 
II., and which stands in the great square of St. Petersburg : " Peter, 
astride a mighty charger, is represented as reining his steed back 
upon its haunches on the brink of a precipice, while he stretches 
his sceptre over the river, and seems to survey with proud triumph 
the wonderful growth of the city of which he is the ' posthumous 
creator,' while underneath the horse's feet writhes a serpent, em- 
blematic of the difficulties that were encountered and overcome 
in founding a capital on a quaking bog." — Geddis. 
1 The Russian Revolt, p. 153. 



566 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Reign of Catherine the Great (i 762-1 796). — From the 
death of Peter on to the close of the eighteenth century the Rus- 
sian throne was held, the greater part of the time, by women, the 
most noted of whom was Catherine II. the Great, " the greatest 
woman probably," according to the admission of an English his- 
torian (McCarthy), "who ever sat on a throne, Elizabeth of Eng- 
land not even excepted." But while a woman of great genius, she 
had most serious faults of character, being incredibly profligate 
and unscrupulous. 

Carrying out ably the policy of Peter the Great, Catherine 
extended vastly the limits of Russian dominion, and opened the 
country even more thoroughly than he had done to the entrance 
of Western influences. The most noteworthy matters of her reign 
were the conquest of the Crimea and the dismemberment of 
Poland. 

It was in the year 1783 that Catherine effected the subjugation 
of the Crimea. The possession of this peninsula gave Russia 
dominion on the Black Sea, which once virtually secured by Peter 
the Great had been again lost through his misfortunes. This 
extension of the authority of the Muscovite to the Euxine was also a 
matter of moment to all Eastern Europe ; for now, as Freeman 
says, " the road through which so many Turanian invaders had 
pressed into the Aryan continent was blocked forever." 

Elated by her successes, Catherine now conceived the project 
of driving the Turks wholly from Europe, and of establishing a 
Byzantine empire dependent upon Russia. Over one of the gates 
of Moscow looking towards the south, she caused to be inscribed 
the legend, "The way to Constantinople." She realized her 
dream only to the extent, in a subsequent war with the Sultan, of 
wresting a little additional territory from the Turks. 

On the West, however, Catherine succeeded, by intrigue and 
the most shameful disregard of the law of nations, in greatly 
extending the limits of her dominions. This she effected at the 
expense of Poland, the partition of which state she planned in 
connection with Frederick the Great of Prussia and Maria Theresa 



REIGN OF CATHERINE THE GREAT. 567 

of Austria. On the first division, which was made in 1772, the 
imperial robbers each took a portion of the spoils. What was left 
was put under an old Polish constitution, which was simply 
"another name for anarchy." In 1793 a second partition was 
made, this time between Russia and Prussia; and then, in 1795, 
after the suppression of a determined revolt of the Poles under 
the lead of the patriot Kosciusko, a third and final division among 
the three powers completed the dismemberment of the unhappy 
state, and erased its name from the map of Europe. The terri- 
tory gained by Russia in these transactions brought her western 
frontier close alongside the civilization of Central Europe. In 
Catherine's phrase, Poland had become her " door mat," upon 
which she stepped when visiting the West. 1 

Besides thus widening her empire, Catherine labored to reform 
its institutions and to civilize her subjects. But the great queen's 
own faults and vices stood in her way, and neutralized much of her 
work. Her labors, however, in bettering the laws and improving 
the administration of the government, have caused her to be 
likened to Solon and Lycurgus ; while her enthusiasm for learning 
and her patronage of letters led Voltaire to say, " Light now comes 
from the North." 

By the close of Catherine's reign Russia was beyond question 
one of the foremost powers of Europe, the weight of her influence 
being quite equal to that of any other nation of the continent. 

1 In extenuation, though not in justilication, of the conduct of the spoilers 
of Poland, it should be said that at this time the internal condition of the 
country bordered so close on anarchy that humanity seemed to excuse any 
interference which promised to result in bringing the turbulent population 
under more efficient government; while in special extenuation of Russia's part 
in the transaction, it should be remembered that for nearly six centuries Poland 
had been her dangerous and aggressive enemy. Thus during the Troublous 
Times the Poles had burned Moscow, thrown the Czar into a dungeon, and 
set a Polish prince upon the Russian throne. 




56S FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

/"-/? CHAPTER IV. __-A4- 

THE RISE OF PRUSSIA: FREDERICK THE GREAT (1740-1786). 

The Beginnings of Prussia. — The foundation of the Prussian 
Kingdom was laid in the beginning of the seventeenth century 
(161 1) by the union of two small states in the North of Germany. 
These were the Mark or Electorate of Brandenburg and the 
Duchy of Prussia. Brandenburg had been gradually growing into 
prominence since the tenth century. Its ruler at this time was a 
prince of the noted House of Hohenzollern, and was one of the 
seven princes to whom belonged the right of electing the Emperor. 

Prussia, so called from the Borussi, a tribe of desperate heathen 
of Slavonic race, was a small state lying along the Baltic shore, 
east of the Vistula. It had been conquered by the valor of the 
Teutonic Knights in the thirteenth century, and during this and 
the following centuries had been gradually colonized and Teuton- 
ized by German immigrants. Slavonic barbarism and heathenism 
had here been pushed back, and territory once lost regained for 
Teutonic civilization and Christianity. 

The Great Elector Frederick William ( 1 640-1 688). — Al- 
though this new Prussian power was destined to become the 
champion of German Protestantism, it acted a very unworthy and 
vacillating part in the Thirty Years' War. But just before the 
close of that struggle a strong man came to the throne, Frederick 
William, better known as the Great Elector. He infused vigor 
and strength into every department of the State, and acquired 
such a position for his government that at the Peace of Westphalia 



FREDERICK TIL ACQUIRES THE TITLE OF KING. 

he was able to secure new territory, which greatly enhanced his 
power and prominence among the German princes. 

The Great Elector ruled for nearly half a century, and left to his 
successor a strongly centralized authority. He laid the basis of 
the military power of Prussia by the formation of a standing army, 
and gave the world to understand that this rising power was to be 
the fearless champion of the cause of Protestantism and religious 
toleration, by defying the wrath of Louis XIV. and opening his 
dominions as an asylum to the Huguenots driven from France by 
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 

How the Elector of Brandenburg acquires the Title of King. 
— Frederick III. (1688-1713), son of the Great Elector, was 
ambitious for the title of king, a dignity that the weight and influence 
won for the Prussian state by his father fairly justified him in seek- 
ing. He saw about him other princes less powerful than himself 
enjoying this dignity, and he too "would be a king and wear a 
crown." Recent events stimulated this ambition. William of 
Orange, Stadtholder of Holland, had just been chosen king of 
England, and Augustus II., Elector of Saxony, had just become 
king of Poland. 

It was necessary of course for Frederick to secure the consent 
of the Emperor, a matter of some difficulty, for the Catholic 
advisers of the Austrian court were bitterly opposed to having an 
heretical prince thus honored and advanced, while the Emperor 
himself was not at all pleased with the idea. But the war of the 
Spanish Succession was just about to open, and the Emperor was 
extremely anxious to secure Frederick's assistance in the coming 
struggle. Therefore, on condition of his furnishing him aid in the 
war, the Emperor consented to Frederick's assuming the new title 
and dignity in the Duchy of Prussia, which, unlike Brandenburg, 
did not form part of the Empire. 

Accordingly, early in the year 1701, Frederick, amidst imposing 
ceremonies, was crowned and hailed as king at Konigsberg. 
Hitherto he had been Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prus- 
sia; now he is Elector of Brandenburg and King of Prussia, and 



570 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

entitled, in this latter state, to exercise all the authority and enjoy 
all the honors and privileges of royalty. 

Thus was a new king born among the kings of Europe. Thus 
did the House of Austria invest with royal dignity the rival House 
of Hohenzollern. The event is a landmark in German, and even in 
European, history. The cue of German history from this on is the 
growth of the power of the Prussian kings, and their steady ad- 
vance to Imperial honors, and to the control of the affairs of the 
German race. 

This wonderful growth of Prussia is compared by Freeman to 
the growth of Wessex in England, of Francia in Gaul, of Castile 
in Spain. " In all these cases it has been a mark land which has 
come to the front and has become the head of the united 
nation." 

Frederick William I. (i 713-1740). — The son and successor 
of the first Prussian king, known as Frederick William I., was one 
of the most extraordinary characters in history. He was a strong, 
violent, brutal man, full of the strangest freaks, yet in many re- 
spects just the man for the times. 

Frederick William's father had been the friend and patron of 
scholars and learning, having founded the University of Halle and 
the Academy of Science at Berlin ; but the son despised culture 
and treated scholars with studied contempt, being reported as 
having declared that " a pinch of common sense was worth a uni- 
versity full of learning." He looked with scorn upon the great 
Leibnitz because he was not big enough to make a good guard. 
His commands were given "in a loud voice and bad grammar." 
His writing was a most wretched scrawl, and his officers some- 
times made woful blunders through misreading their orders. 

Frederick William differed, too, from his father in the matter 
of economy. His father loved show and parade, and was reck- 
lessly prodigal in his expenditures. As soon as Frederick William 
came to the throne he dismissed the crowd of attendants with 
whom his father had filled the palace, and introduced the same 
economy in all the departments of the government. He would 



THE " TOBACCO PARLIAMENT.* 1 57) 

tolerate no idlers. He carried a long cane, which he laid upon 
the back of every unoccupied person he chanced to find, whether 
man, woman, or child. " Get home to your brats," was his rough 
salutation to women whom he found in the streets without any ap- 
parent object. He once caned a whole bench full of dignified 
judges. 

The " Regiment of Giants." — In one matter, however, Freder- 
ick William forgot entirely his maxims of economy. He had a 
mania for big soldiers. With infinite expense and trouble he 
gathered a regiment of the biggest men he could find, which were 
known as the "Potsdam Giants/' — a regiment numbering 2,400 
men, some of whom were eight feet in height. Not only were the 
Goliaths of his own dominions impressed into the service, but big 
men in all parts of Europe were coaxed, bribed, or kidnaped by 
Frederick's recruiting officers. Some of these recruits cost the 
king dear. An Irish giant cost him $45,000. No present was 
so acceptable to him as a giant, and by the gift of a six-footer 
more than one prince of Europe bought the everlasting favor 
of Frederick William. 

The use of any means seemed justifiable in his view in securing 
a tall grenadier. He got himself into trouble more than once 
through his recruiting sergeants kidnaping the subjects of neigh- 
boring sovereigns. No matter where they were, " tall men went 
about with their liberty in their hands." 

Considering the trouble and expense Frederick William had in 
collecting his Giants, the care which he took of them was quite 
natural. He looked after them as tenderly as though they were 
infants, and was very careful never to expose them to the dangers 
of a battle. 

The "Tobacco Parliament."— Another of Frederick William's 
institutions was what was known as the "Tobacco Parliament." 
This was a sort of council board, every member of which was 
obliged to drink beer and to smoke, or at least to hold an empty 
pipe in his mouth and make believe he was smoking. Here, 
enveloped in clouds of tobacco smoke, the king discussed with 



572 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

his ministers, in the most undignified manner conceivable, the 
weightiest affairs of his kingdom. 

Frederick William I. as an Administrator. — Notwithstand- 
ing Frederick William was so eccentric in many of his public acts, 
and in his domestic relations was a perfect savage, in the gen- 
eral administration of his government he evinced such energy and 
good judgment that he is admitted to have been one of the great- 
est legislators of his age. His purpose was to make himself an 
absolute despot, and he seemed fully persuaded that " despotism 
to be stable must be terrible.'.' 

Rough, brutal tyrant that he was, he did very much to consoli- 
date the power of Prussia, and at his death in 1 740 left to his 
successor a considerably extended dominion, and a splendid army 
of 80,000 men. 

Frederick the Great (1 740-1 786). — Frederick William was 
followed by his son Frederick II., to whom the world has agreed 
to give the title of " Great." It was a rough nurture that he had 
received in the home of his brutal father. His fine tastes exasper- 
ated his savage parent, who abused him most shamefully. On one 
occasion it was only the interference of the attendants that pre- 
vented the raving king from running the prince through with his 
sword. 

Frederick had a genius for war, and his father had prepared to 
his hand one of the most efficient instruments of the art since the 
time of the Roman legions. The two great wars in which he 
was engaged, and which raised Prussia to the first rank among the 
military powers of Europe, were the War of the Austrian Succes- 
sion and the Seven Years' War. 

War of the Austrian Succession (1 740-1 748). — Through the 
death of Charles VI. the Imperial office became vacant on the very 
year that Frederick II. ascended the Prussian throne. Charles 
was the last of the direct male line of the Hapsburgs, and disputes 
straightway arose respecting the possessions of the House of 
Austria, which resulted in the long struggle known as the War of 
the Austrian Succession. 



WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION. 

Now, not long before the death of Charles, he had bound all the 
leading powers of Europe in a sort of agreement called the Prag- 
matic Sanction, by the terms of which, in case Ik- should leave no 
son, all his hereditary dominions — that is, the kingdom of Hun- 
gary, the kingdom of Bohemia, the archduchy of Austria, and the 
other possessions of the House of Austria — should be bestowed 
upon his daughter Maria Theresa. 

Accordingly, upon the death of Charles these dominions passed 
to Theresa, who was now called Queen of Hungary, that being the 
highest title of all those which she was entitled to bear. The 
Imperial crown could not of course be worn by her, and it was 
two years before the Electors agreed upon whom to bestow it. 
They finally chose the Elector of Bavaria, who became Emperor 
as Charles VII. (1742). 

Solemnly as the powers of Europe had agreed to maintain the 
Pragmatic Sanction, no sooner was Charles dead than a number of 
princes immediately laid claim to greater or lesser portions of the 
dominions that now belonged by right to his daughter. Promi- 
nent among these claimants was Frederick of Prussia, who claimed 
Silesia, and Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, who set up a claim 
to the Austrian States. France, ever the deadly enemy of the 
House of Austria, lent her armies to aid the latter claimant in 
making good his pretensions. 

Before Maria Theresa could arm in defence of her dominions, 
Frederick had pushed his army into Silesia and taken forcible 
possession of that country. Shortly afterwards the French and 
Bavarians overran Austria. It was after this conquest that Charles 
Albert was raised to the Imperial throne, to which election we 
made reference just above. 

Queen Theresa, thus stripped of a large part of her dominions, 
fled into Hungary, and with all of a beautiful woman's art of per- 
suasion appealed to her Hungarian subjects to avenge her wrongs. 
Her unmerited sufferings, her beauty, her tears, the little princed^ 
in her arms, stirred the resentment and kindled the ardent loyalty 
of the Hungarian nobles, and with one voice, as they rang their 



574 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

swords in their scabbards, they swore to support the cause of their 
Queen with their estates and their lives. 

England and Sardinia also threw themselves into the contest on 
//£<" Maria Theresa's side. In 1745 Charles VII. died, and the hus- 
band of the Queen was raised by the Electors to the Imperial 
throne as Emperor Francis I. Under these changed conditions 
the war went on until 1 748, when it was closed by the Peace of 
Aix-la-Chapelle, which left Silesia in the hands of Frederick. 
^ The Seven Years' War (1 756-1 763). — The eight years of 
peace which followed the war of the Austrian Succession were 
improved by Frederick in developing the resources of his kingdom 
and perfecting the organization and discipline of his army. Dur- 
ing this time Maria Theresa was busy forming a league of the chief 
European powers against the unscrupulous despoiler of her do- 
minions. France, Russia, Poland, Saxony, and Sweden, all entered 
into an alliance with the Queen. Frederick could at first find no 
ally save England, — towards the close of the struggle Russia came 
to his side, — so that he was left almost alone to fight the com- 
bined armies of the continent. 

At first the fortunes of the war were all on Frederick's side. In 
the celebrated battles of Rossbach, Leuthen, and Zorndorf, he 
defeated successively the French, the Austrians, and the Russians, 
and startled all Europe into an acknowledgment of the fact that 
the armies of Prussia had at their head one of the greatest com- 
manders of the world. His name became everywhere a household 
word, and everybody coupled with it the admiring epithet of 
" Great." 

But fortune finally deserted him. In sustaining the unequal 
contest, his dominions became drained of men ; England with- 
drew her aid, and inevitable ruin seemed to impend over his 
throne and kingdom. He himself, despairing of being able much 
longer to hold his enemies at bay, carried about his person poison 
to use when the last effort should have been made. 

A change by death in the government of Russia now put a new 
face upon Frederick's affairs. In 1762 Elizabeth of that country 



DEATH OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 575 

died, and Peter III., an ardent admirer of Frederick, came to the 
throne, and immediately transferred the armies of Russia from the 
side of the allies to that of Prussia. "Together we will conquer 
the whole world," was the sanguine declaration of the Czar as he 
joined his forces to those of his friend. 

Fortune now again shifted to the side of Frederiek, and the 
year following the defection of Russia, England and France were 
glad to give over the struggle and sign the Peace of Paris ( 1 763 ). 
Shortly after this another peace (the Treaty of Hubertsburg) was 
arranged between Austria and Prussia, and one of the most terri- 
ble wars that had ever disturbed Europe was over. Silesia was 
left in the hands of Frederick. 

The most noteworthy result of the war was the exalting of the 
Prussian kingdom to a most commanding position among the 
European powers. 

Frederick's Part in the Dismemberment of Poland. — Freder- 
ick the Great has been before us as the prominent figure in two 
memorable wars, in both of which he has, while betraying unworthy 
traits of character, exhibited virtues and abilities that have claimed 
our highest admiration ; but now he appears as a prominent actor 
in a most shameful transaction, which awakens in us nothing but 
feelings of indignation and protest. 

We refer to the dismemberment of Poland. It was about a 
decade after the close of the Seven Years' War, that Frederick, 
in conjunction with the rulers of Austria and Russia, seized and 
appropriated about a third of this country. 

This infamous transaction afforded a precedent which led, during 
the confusion of the French Revolution, to what are known as the 
Second and Third Partitions of Poland (see page 566). 

Death of Frederick the Great (1786). — Whatever may have 
been Frederick's faults, he was an able administrator as well as 
warrior, and gave his dominions a strong and paternal, though 
despotic, government, under which the ravages of war were grad- 
ually effaced, and the resources of the kingdom vastly developed. 
He finally died in 1786, six years after the death of Maria Theresa. 



576 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

His dominions passed to his nephew Frederick William II., a man 
just the opposite of his great uncle. 

Frederick's Work : Prussia made a New Centre of German 
Crystalization. — The all-important result of Frederick the Great's 
strong reign was the making of Prussia the equal of Austria, 
and thereby laying the basis of German unity. Hitherto Ger- 
many had been trying unsuccessfully to concentrate about Austria ; 
now there is a new centre of crystalization, one that will draw to 
itself all the various elements of German nationality. 

If we were to draw an historical parallel, we would liken Prussia 
and Austria in the German world to Athens and Sparta in the old 
Greek world. They become bitter rivals, and about them, as about 
the two Grecian rivals, the smaller neighboring states gather as 
prompted by their political and religious tendencies. Austria 
represents reactionary, despotic Catholicism ; Prussia progressive, 
liberal Protestantism. The history of Germany from this on, as 
we have intimated in another place, is the story of the rivalry of 
these two powers, with the final triumph of the kingdom of the 
North, and the unification of Germany under her leadership, Aus- 
tria being pushed out as entitled to no part in the affairs of the 
Fatherland. Thig story we shall tell in a subsequent chapter. 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 577 

i 

CHAPTER V. 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1799). 
I. Causes of the Revolution: the States- General of 1789. 

Introductory. — The French Revolution is in political what the 
German Reformation is in ecclesiastical history. It was the revolt 
of the French people against royal despotism and class privilege. 
"Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," was the motto of the Revolu- 
tion. In the name of these principles the most atrocious crimes 
were indeed committed ; but these excesses of the Revolution are 
not to be confounded with its true spirit and aims. The French 
people in 1789 contended for those same principles that the 
English Puritans defended in 1640, and that our fathers main- 
tained in 1776. It is only as we view them in this light, that we 
can feel a sympathetic interest in the men and events of this tu- 
multuous period of French history. 

Causes of the Revolution. — Chief among the causes of the 
French Revolution w ere the abuses and extravagan ces of the 
Bourbon monarchy; the unjust ]mvi1f££s. enjoyed, by the nobility 
and clergyj the wretc hed condition of the great mass of the 
people; and the revolutionary character and spirit of French 
philosophy and literature. To these must be added, as a proxi- 
mate cause, the influence of the American Revolution. We will 
speak briefly of these several matters. 

Even the hastiest examination of the condition of France during 
the century preceding the tremendous social upheaval, will enable 
us to understand how an English statesman, 1 writing just before 

1 Lord Chesterfield, writing in 1753. 



57S FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

the bursting of the storm, could say, " All the symptoms which I 
have ever met with in history, previous to great changes and revo- 
lutions in government, now exist and daily increase in France." 

The Bourbon Monarchy. — We simply repeat what we have 
already learned, when we say that the authority of the French 
crown under the Bourbons had become unbearably despotic and 
oppressive. The life of every person in the realm was at the 
arbitrary disposal of the king. Persons were thrown into prison 
without even knowing the offense for which they were arrested. 
The royal decrees were laws. The taxes imposed by the king 
were simply robberies and confiscations. The public money, thus 
gathered, was squandered in maintaining a court the scandalous 
extravagances and debaucheries of which would shame a Turkish 
Sultan. 

Meanwhile all public works and all national interests, after the 
reign of Louis XIV., were utterly neglected. Louis XV., it is 
asserted, " probably spent more money on his harem than on any 
department of State." Louis XVI. was sincerely desirous of 
reform, but unfortunately he did not possess the qualities essential 
in a reformer. Besides, it was too late. Matters had gone too 
far. France was already caught in the rapids that sweep down to 
the abyss of Revolution. 

The Nobility. — The French nobility, in the time of the Bour- 
bons, numbered about 80,000 families — that is, between 200,000 
and 300,000 persons. The order was simply the rubbish of the 
once powerful but now broken-down feudal aristocracy of the 
Middle Ages. Its members were chiefly the pensioners of the 
king, the ornaments of his court, living in riotous luxury at Paris 
or Versailles. Stripped of their ancient power, they still retained 
all the old pride and arrogance of their order, and clung tena- 
ciously to all their feudal privileges. Although holding one third of 
the lands of France, they paid scarcely any taxes. The rents of 
their estates, with which they supplemented the bounty of the king, 
were wrung from their wretched tenants with pitiless severity. 
That heartless absentee landlordism which is constantly driving 



THE COMMONS. 579 

the peasantry of Ireland to the point of revolution feebly illus- 
trates the relation of the French nobles to their tenants at the 
time of which we are speaking. 

The Clergy. — The clergy formed a decayed feudal hierarchy. 
They possessed enormous wealth, the gift of piety through many 
centuries. A second third of the lands of the country was in 
their hands, and yet this immense property was almost wholly 
exempt from taxation. The bishops and abbots were usually 
drawn from the families of the nobles, being attracted to the ser- 
vice of the Church rather by its princely revenues and the social 
distinction conferred by its offices, than by the inducements of 
piety. These "patrician prelates" were characterized by the same 
odious pride and insolence that marked the lay nobles. They 
were hated alike by the humble clergy and the people. Though 
there were many noble exceptions, the great mass of the clergy, 
including both the superior and inferior members of the order, 
were ignorant, arrogant, avaricious, and so generally immoral in 
their lives, that they had lost all credit and authority with the 
people whose shepherds they ostensibly were. 

The Commons. — Below the two privileged orders of the state 
stood the commons, who constituted the great bulk of the nation, 
and numbered, at the commencement of the Revolution, probably 
25,000,000. These were divided into two classes, the Bourgeoisie, 
or Middle Class, composed of the wealthy and well-to-do mer- 
chants, traders, lawyers, and other professional men ; and the 
People^ embracing of course the great mass of the commons, and 
being made up of the peasants and the poorer inhabitants of the 
towns. 

The Middle Class were despised by the privileged orders and 
hated by the People ; yet they constituted the most intelligent 
portion of the French nation, and the conservatism of the body 
was often a great check upon the fury of the masses at different 
stages of the Revolution. 

But it is with the condition of the lower classes, the People, 
that we are now particularly concerned. It is quite impossible to 



580 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

give any adequate idea of the wrongs and abuses suffered by these, 
and of the wretched condition to which they were reduced during 
the century preceding the Revolution. Their only recognized use 
in the state was " to pay feudal services to the lords, tithes to the 
priests, and imposts to the king." 

The peasants were vexed by the most burdensome feudal 
regulations. Thus they were forbidden to fence their fields for 
the protection of their crops, as the fences interfered with the 
lord's progress in the hunt ; they were not allowed to frighten 
away the game which fed upon their vegetables ; and they were 
even prohibited from cultivating their fields at certain seasons, as 
this disturbed the partridges and other game. Moreover, they 
must at all times calmly endure the sight of the lord's hunting 
party — men, horses, and hounds — sweeping through their crops, 
and be thankful that they themselves are not the object of the 
hunt. Louis XV. once deeply wounded the feelings of one of his 
great lords by gently reproving him " for shooting peasants as a 
pastime." In short, the French peasantry had been reduced to 
Helots. - £^^ 

Being thus kept in a state of abject poverty, a failure of their 
crops reduced the French tenants to absolute starvation. It was 
not an unusual thing to find women and children dead in the 
woods or along the roadways. One account tells how some 
children were discovered " sucking the bones in a cemetery." A 
noted writer thus pictures the appearance of the peasantry : " You 
see certain fierce animals, male and female, scattered through the 
country ; they are black, livid, and burnt by the sun ; . . . they 
have an articulate voice, and when they rise upon their feet, they 
show a human face, and are, in fact, men and women. They with- 
draw at night into dens, where they feed upon black bread, water, 
and roots ; they spare other men the trouble of sowing, toiling, 
and harvesting for support, and thus deserve this bread which 
they have sown." l 

1 La Bruyere, as quoted by Lacombe in his History of the French 
People, to which work we are indebted for several of the other illustrations 
of the text. 



REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT OP FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 581 

Fenelon says to Louis XIV. : "Your people arc dying of hun- 
ger. Instead of money being wrenched from these poor creatures, 
alms and food should be given them. France is simply a large 
hospital, full of woe and empty of food." 

And thus the harrowing account runs through all the eighteenth 
century up to the outbreak of the Revolution. 

When hereafter we see these wretched creatures turning like 
maddened demons upon those whom they regard as responsible 
for their sufferings, we must remember their terrible wrongs, and 
also bear in mind that it is the divine law that the sowers of the 
wind shall be the reapers of the whirlwind. 

Revolutionary Spirit of French Philosophy. — French philoso- 
phy in the eighteenth century was skeptical and revolutionary. 
The names of the great infidel writers Rousseau and Voltaire sug- 
gest at once its prevalent tone and spirit. 

Voltaire (i 694-1 778) was the very impersonation of the ten- 
dencies of his age. He gave expression, forcible and striking, 
to what the people were vaguely thinking and feeling. In the 
use of satire and irony he never had a superior, if a peer. He had 
a most marvelous faculty of condensing thought, and putting whole 
philosophies in an epigram, supplied the French people with 
proverbs for a century. His writings stirred all France, and did 
so much to precipitate the Revolution that in one sense there was 
much truth in his declaration, " I have accomplished more in my 
day than either Luther or Calvin." 1 

Rousseau (171 2- 1778), like Voltaire, had neither faith nor 
hope in any of the existing institutions of society. He persuaded 
himself that all the evils which afflict humanity arise from vicious, 
artificial arrangements, such as the family, the Church, and the 
State. Accordingly he would do away with these things, and have 
men return to a state of nature — that is, to simplicity. Saw 
he declared, were happier than civilized men. 

1 Though often charged with being an atheist, Voltaire was not; he was 
a deist, combating alike atheism and Christianity. His last words were, " I 
die worshipping God, but detesting superstition." 

Diderot (1713-17S4) and D'Alembert (1717-1783) were the chief of the 



5S2 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The tendency and effect of this skeptical philosophy was to 
create hatred and contempt for the institutions of both State and 
Church, to foster discontent with the established order of things, 
to stir up an uncontrollable passion for innovation and change. 

Nor was it difficult for the theoretical revolutionists to secure 
the ear of a people proverbially impulsive and imaginative, and 
suffering to the point of desperation from the unequal and oppres- 
sive arrangements of a wholly artificial society. The grand ideas 
and principles of the proposed crusade for the recovery of the 
Rights of Man, could not fail of appealing powerfully to that 
imaginative genius of the French people which had led them to 
be foremost in the romantic expeditions for the recovery of the 
Holy Sepulchre. 

This daring, skeptical, revolutionary philosophy, having once 
taken possession of the minds of the French people, was bound, 
sooner or later, to find expression in their acts. " Human 
thought," says Lamartine, " is like the Divine mind ; it makes 
everything in its own image." We shall soon see this Philosophy 
making History, and making it like unto itself. With creative 
energy it exclaims, " Behold, I make all things new ! " 

Influence of the American Revolution. — Not one of the least 
potent of the proximate causes of the French Revolution was the 
successful establishment of the American Republic. The French 
people sympathized deeply with the English colonists in their 
struggle for independence. Many of the nobility, like Lafayette, 
— for the French nobles, strangely blind to the logical conse- 
quences of the New Philosophy, were, very many of them, its 
enthusiastic disciples, — offered to the patriots the service of their 
swords ; and the popular feeling finally compelled Louis XVI. to 
extend to them openly the aid of the armies of France. 

so-called Encyclopedists, — the disciples of Voltaire, and the compilers of an 
immense work in twenty-eight volumes. The purpose of this prodigious com- 
pilation was to gather up and systematize all the facts in science and history 
in possession of the world, in order that this knowledge might be made the 
basis of a philosophy of life and of the universe which should supersede all 
the old systems of thought and belief resting simply on ancient authority. 



CALLING OF THE STATES-GENERAL 5 S3 

The final triumph of the cause of liberty awakened scarcely less 
enthusiasm and rejoicing in France than in America. The repub- 
lican simplicity of the new-born state, contrasting so strongly with 
the extravagance and artificiality of the court at Versailles, elicited 
the unbounded admiration of the French people. In this young 
republic of the Western world they saw realized the Arcadia of 
their philosophy. It was no longer a dream. They themselves 
had helped to make it real. Here the Rights of Man had been 
recovered and vindicated. And now this liberty which the French 
people had helped the American colonists to secure, they were 
impatient to see France herself enjoy. 

"After us, the Deluge." — The long-gathering tempest is now 
ready to break over France. Louis XV. died in 1774. In the 
early part of his reign his subjects had affectionately called him 
the "Well-beloved," but long before he laid down the sceptre, all 
their early love and admiration had been turned into hatred and 
contempt. Besides being overbearing and despotic, the king was 
indolent, rapacious, and scandalously profligate. During twenty 
years of his reign the king was wholly under the influence of the 
notorious Madame de Pomnaclour. £w 

The inevitable issue of this orgie of crime and folly seems to 
have been clearly enough perceived by the chief actors in it, as is 
shown by that reckless phrase so often on the lips of the king and 
his favorite — "After us, the Deluge." And after them, the 
Deluge indeed did come. The near thunders of the approaching 
tempest could already be heard when Louis XV. lav down to die. J 

Calling of the States-General (17S9). — Louis XV. left the 
tottering throne to his grandson, Louis XVI., then only twenty 
years of age. He had recently been married to the fair and 
brilliant Marie Antoinette, archduchess of Austria. The first act 
of the young couple upon learning that the burdens of sovereignty 
had descended upon their shoulders, was, we are told, to cast 
themselves upon their knees with the prayer, "O God! guide 
and protect us; we are too young to govern '" Well, indeed, 
might they appeal to heaven ; there was no earthly aid. 



584 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The king called to his side successively Maurepas, Turgot, 
Necker, and Calonne as his ministers and advisers ; but their 
policies and remedies availed little or nothing. The disease 
which had fastened itself upon the nation was too deep-seated. 
The traditions of the court, the rigidity of long-established 
customs, and the heartless selfishness of the privileged classes, 
rendered reform and efficient retrenchment impossible. For 
illustration, the household of the princess, a child in arms, was 
reduced to eighty persons, and this was regarded as " a marvel of 
retrenchment and economy." The national debt grew constantly 
larger. The people charged all to the extravagance of the queen, 
whom they called " Madame Deficit." 

In 1787 the king summoned the Notables, a body composed 
chiefly of great lords and prelates, who had not been called to 
advise with the king since the reign of Henry IV. But miserable 
counselors were they all. Refusing to give up any of their feudal 
privileges, or to tax the property of their own orders that the 
enormous public burdens which were crushing the commons 
might be lightened, their coming together resulted in nothing. 

As a last resort it was resolved to summon the united wisdom 
of the nation, — to call together the States-General, the almost- 
forgotten national assembly, composed of representatives of the 
three estates, — the nobility, the clergy, and the commons, the 
latter being known as the Tiers Etat, or Third Estate. On 
the 5th of May, 1789, a memorable date, this assembly met at 
Versailles. It was the first time it had been summoned to delib- 
erate upon the affairs of the nation in the space of 175 years. It 
was now composed of 1,200 representatives, more than one half 
of whom were deputies of the commons. The eyes of the nation 
were turned in hope and expectancy towards Versailles. Surely 
if the redemption of France could be worked out by human 
wisdom, it would now be effected. 



THE NATIONAL OR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 5S5 

II. The National or Constituent Assembly 

(June 17, i 789 -Sept. 30, 1791). 

The States-General changed into the National Assembly. At 

the very outset a dispute arose in the assembly between the privi- 
leged orders and the commons, respecting the manner of voting. 
It had been the ancient custom of the body to vote upon all 
questions by orders ; and thinking that this custom would prevail 
in the present assembly, the king and his counselors had yielded 
to the popular demand and allowed the Third Estate to send to 
Versailles more representatives than both the other orders. The 
commons now demanded that the voting should be by individuals ; 
for, should the vote be taken by orders, the clergy and nobility by 
combining could always outvote them. For five weeks the quarrel 
kept everything at a standstill. 

Finally the commons, emboldened by the tone of public opinion 
without, took a decisive, revolutionary step. They declared them- 
selves the National Assembly, and then invited the other two orders 
to join them in their deliberations, giving them to understand that 
if they did not choose to do so, they should proceed to the con- 
sideration of public affairs without them. 

King, nobles, and clergy were alarmed at the bold attitude 
assumed by the commons. Their act was denounced as a most 
audacious and unheard-of usurpation of authority. The king, in 
helpless alarm, prorogued the assembly, and guarded the doors of 
the hall. But the commons, gathering in the tennis-court of the 
palace, bound themselves by oath not to separate until they had 
framed a constitution for France. 

Shut out from the palace, the Third Estate met in one of the 
churches of Versailles. Most of the clergy had already joined the 
body. Bailly, President of the Assembly, in welcoming them, 
said : "There is still something to be desired ; some brothers are 
wanting to this august assembly. What we want will be given to 
us : all our brothers will come here." Two days after this the 
nobility came. The eloquent Uailly, in receiving them, exclaimed, 



586 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

" This day will be illustrious in our annals ; it renders the family 
complete." 

The States-General had become in reality the National As- 
sembly. 

Prominent Men in the Assembly. — Lamartine declares that the 
National Assembly was " the most imposing body of men that ever 
represented not only France, but the human race." It was im- 
pressive, not so much from the ability or genius of its individual 
members, as through the tremendous interests it held in its hands. 
Yet there were in the assembly a number of men whose names 
cannot be passed in silence. 

Among the nobility was the patriotic Lafayette, who had won the 
admiration of his countrymen by splendid services rendered the 
struggling republic in the New World. Belonging by birth to the 
same order, but sitting now as a deputy of the commons, was 
Mirabeau, a large-headed, dissolute, unscrupulous man, an im- 
petuous orator, the mouth-piece of the Revolution. He seemed 
to want to right the wrongs of the people, yet without undermining 
the power of the king. He had already demonstrated his fitness 
for leadership. When the king, during the quarrels attending the 
organization of the assembly, sent a messenger to the Third Estate 
commanding them to retire from the hall in which they were sit- 
ting, Mirabeau closed a fiery speech with these bold words to the 
herald : " Go tell your master that we are here by the will of the 
people, and here we shall stay unless driven out by the bayonet." 
"•The only man able to direct the storm of the Revolution, he is 
destined to be carried off by death just as the tempest is 
breaking." 

Also among the deputies of the Third Estate sat another man 
whom we must notice — Robespierre, not much known as yet, but 
of whom we shall hear enough by and by. The most eminent rep- 
resentative of the clergy was Abbe Sieves, a person of wonderful 
facility in framing constitutions. France will have much need of 
such talent, as we shall see. 

Origin of the Revolutionary Commune of Paris. — While the 



STORMING OF 7 7 IK BASTILE. 587 

States-General was metamorphosing itself into the National Assem- 
bly, the government of Paris was undergoing a somewhat similar 
transformation. During all these weeks the capital was in a seeth- 
ing ferment. The king at last imprudently began to mass troops 
about Versailles, as if to overawe the national representatives. A 
rumor was spread in Paris that he was on the point of closing the 
deliberations of the body by force. The inhabitants of the capital 
resolved to take precautionary measures against any such attempt 
upon the Assembly. The municipal authorities showing themselves 
worthless, the leading men of the different sections, or wards, of the 
city formed themselves into a sort of provisional City Council, and 
took upon themselves the government of the capital. Thus in this 
moment of tumult and confusion was born the revolutionary Com-! 
raune of Paris, a body whose power came to overshadow that of 
the National Assembly itself. 

The Formation of the National Guards. — We must here also 
speak of the origin of the celebrated National Guards. The mem- 
bers of the communal board had hastened their organization in 
order to impress some kind of order upon the mobs of the capital ; 
for the rumor from Versailles of guns trained on the Assembly, 
and of foreign troops marching upon Paris, had maddened the 
populace to frenzy. Under the direction of the self-constituted 
Commune, the inhabitants of the capital now formed themselves 
into a sort of police force, with Lafayette as their commander. 
These hastily recruited bodies took the name of National Guards, 
and under that title were destined to act a most conspicuous part 
in the scenes of the Revolution. 

Storming of the Bastile (July 14, 1789). — Thus all Paris was 
ready to burst into conflagration. A report that the guns of the 
Bastile, the old state prison, the emblem, in the eyes of the people, 
of despotism, were trained on the city, kindled the inflammable 
mass. " Let us storm the Bastile," rang through the streets. 
Rushing to the Hospital dc> Invalides, the mob seized the store of 
arms kept in that place, and then proceeded to lav regular siege to 
the grim old dungeon. In a few hours the prison-fortress v. 



5SS FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

the hands of the besiegers. The curious crowds ransacked every 
corner of the mediaeval horror, liberating the seven prisoners they 
found in its gloomy cells. One of these had been a captive for 
thirty years, and when led out into the sunlight, seemed dazed, like 
one awaking from a dream. 

The governor and others of the defenders of the place were 
murdered, their heads placed at the end of pikes, and thus borne 
through the streets. The walls of the hated old dungeon were 
razed to the ground, and the people danced on the spot. 

The destruction by the Paris mob of the Bastile is in the French 
Revolution what the burning of the Papal bull by Luther was to 
the Reformation. It was the death-knell not only of Bourbon 
despotism in France, but of royal tyranny everywhere. When the 
news reached England, the great statesman Fox, perceiving its 
significance for liberty, exclaimed, " How much is this the greatest 
event that ever happened in the world, and how much the best ! " 
Louis XVI. regarded the matter somewhat differently. When 
intelligence of the affair was carried to him at Versailles, he ex- 
claimed, " What, Rebellion / " " No, sire," was the response, " it 
is Revolution^ The great French Revolution had indeed begun. 
The Abolition of Privileges (Aug. 4, 1789).— The fall of the 
Bastile left Paris in the hands of a triumphant mob. Those sus- 
pected of sympathizing with the royal party were massacred with- 
out mercy. The peasantry in many districts, following the example 
set them by the capital, rose against the nobles, sacked and burned 
their castles, and either killed the occupants or dragged them of! 
to prison. This terrorism caused the beginning of what is known 
as the emigration of the nobles, to which matter we shall recur a 
little later. 

The storm without hastened matters within the National Assem- 
bly at Versailles. The privileged orders now realized that, to save 
themselves from the fury of the masses, they must give up those 
vexatious feudal privileges which were the real cause of the suffer- 
ings and anger of the people. Rising in the tribune, two prominent 
members of the nobility represented that they were willing to re- 



" TO VERSAILLES." 5S9 

nounce all their feudal rights and exemptions. A contagious enthu- 
siasm was awakened by this act of patriotic generosity. Nobles and 
prelates crowded to the tribune to follow the example of disinterest- 
edness. The impulsiveness of the Gallic heart was never better 
illustrated. Everybody wanted to make sacrifices for the common 
good. Like the early apostolic Church, the Assembly seemed on 
the point of resolving that everything should be held in common. 
The members embraced one another, and in their transports of joy 
sung the Te Deum, in celebration of the advent of equality, peace, 
and good will among men. 

It was past the hour of midnight when the Assembly dissolved. 
The enthusiasm of the moment soon cooled, and the subsequent 
obstruction offered by the self-denying members to the carrying 
out of the resolutions of the evening, caused the people to give 
them little credit for a generosity followed by such hasty repentance. 
Nevertheless, a very great reform was accomplished. In a single 
night much of the rubbish of the feudal system had been cleared 
away. 

"To Versailles." — An imprudent act on the part of the king 
and his friends at Versailles brought about the next episode in the 
progress of the Revolution. The arrival there of a body of Flem- 
ish troops was made the occasion of a banquet to the officers of 
the regiment. While heated with wine, the young nobles had 
trampled under foot the national tri-colored cockades, and substi- 
tuted for them white cockades, the emblem of the Bourbons. 
Ladies and all took part in this and other acts expressive of sym- 
pathy with the king. 

The report of these proceedings caused in Paris the wildest ex- 
citement. Other rumors of the intended flight of the king to Metz, 
and of plots against the national cause, added fuel to the flames. 
Besides, bread had failed, and the poorer classes were savage from 
hunger. 

October 5th a mob of desperate women, terrible in aspect as 
furies, and armed with clubs and knives, collected in the streets of 
Paris, determined upon going to Versailles, and demanding relief 



590 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

from the king himself. All efforts to dissuade them from their 
purpose were unavailing, and soon the Parisian rabble was in mo- 
tion. A horrible multitude, savage as the hordes that followed 
Attila, streamed out of the city towards Versailles. The National 
Guards, infected with the delirium of the moment, forced Lafayette 
to lead them in the same direction. Thus all day Paris emptied 
itself into the royal suburb. 

The mob encamped in the streets of Versailles for the night. 
Early the following morning they broke into the palace, killed two 
of the guards, and battering down doors with axes, forced their way 
to the queen's chamber, who barely escaped with her life to the 
king's apartments. The timely arrival of Lafayette alone saved the 
entire royal family from being massacred. 

The Royal Family taken to Paris. — The mob now demanded 
that the king should go with them to Paris. Their object in this 
was to have him under their eye, and prevent his conspiring with 
the privileged orders to thwart the plans of the revolutionists. 
Louis was forced to yield to the demands of the people ; and the 
immense mob, with National and Swiss Guards and Flemish sol- 
diers, took up the line of march for the capital. In advance of 
the procession was borne, at the end of pikes, the heads of two of 
the king's guards. Around the royal coach, and everywhere else as 
well, swarmed hideous women, howling like demons, riding astride 
the cannon, insulting the queen, embracing the guards, singing- 
ribald songs, and making the march a perfect bacchanalian orgie. 
"We shall have plenty of bread now," they shouted ; "we have got 
the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's boy." 

The procession arrived at Paris in the evening. The royal 
family were placed in the Palace of the Tuileries, and Lafayette 
was charged with the duty of guarding the king, who was to be 
held as a sort of hostage for the good conduct of the nobles and 
foreign sovereigns while the new constitution was being prepared 
by the Assembly. 

Such was what was called the "joyous entry" of October 6th. 
The palace at Versailles, thus stripped of royalty and left bespat- 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KING. 

teredwith blood, was destined never again to be occupied as the 

residence o'f a king of France. 

The Emigration of the Nobles. — It was immediately after the 
scenes of the Joyous Entry that the emigration, or flight of the 
nobles beyond the frontiers of France became general. This action 
of the nobility changed the entire course and issue of the Revolu- 
tion. " Had the French noblesse," says Lamartine, " but employed 
one half the virtues and efforts they made to subdue the Revolution, 
in regulating it, the Revolution, although it changed the laws, would 
not have changed the monarchy." 

The popular party at this stage of the revolutionary movement, 
we must bear in mind, had no desire of overturning the throne, but 
only of checking the arbitrary exercise of royal authority. Had 
the nobles remained and worked to this end with the people, all 
this might have been easily and quickly accomplished, and the 
republic would never have been established. To this unfortunate 
flight of the nobles is also to be attributed many of the worst crimes 
of the revolutionists. It was the threat of foreign interference and 
invasion, instigated and aided by the emigrant nobles, that, in the 
critical moments of the struggle, frenzied the people, and incited 
them to the commission of those terrible excesses which so stain 
the records of the Revolution. 

The Flight of the King (June 20, 1791). — For two years fol- 
lowing the Joyous Entry there was a lull in the storm of the Rev- 
olution. The king was kept a close prisoner in the Tuileries. 
The National Assembly were making sweeping reforms both in 
Church and State, and busying themselves in framing a new con- 
stitution. The emigrant nobles watched the course of events from 
beyond the frontiers, not daring to make a move for fear the ex- 
citable Parisian mob, upon any hostile step taken by them, would 
massacre the entire royal family. 

Could the king only escape from the hands of his captors and 
make his way beyond the borders of France, then he could place 
himself at the head of the emigrant nobles, and. with foreign aid, 
overturn the National Assembly and crush the revolutionists. The 



592 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

flight was resolved upon and carefully planned. Under cover of 
night the entire royal family, in disguise, escaped from the Tuil- 
eries, and by post conveyance fled towards the frontier. When 
just another hour would have placed the fugitives in safety among 
friends, the Bourbon features of the king betrayed him to a post- 
boy,- who gave the alarm, and the entire party was arrested. The 
bribes and commands of the king, the tears and entreaties of the 
queen, availed nothing. The terrible suspense and anxiety of the 
first night following the arrest caused the hair of the queen to 
turn perfectly white. 

The attempted flight of the royal family was a fatal blow to the 
Monarchy. Many affected to regard it as equivalent to an act of 
abdication on the part of the king. The people begin to talk of a 
Republic. The word is only whispered as yet ; but it will not be 
long before those who do not shout vociferously, " Vive la Repub- 
lique" will be hurried to the guillotine. 

The Clubs: Jacobins and Cordeliers. — In order to render 
intelligible the further course of the Revolution we must now 
speak of two clubs, or organizations, which came into prominence 
about this time, and which were destined to become more power- 
ful than the Assembly itself, and to be the chief instruments in 
inaugurating the Reign of Terror. These were the societies of the 
Jacobins and Cordeliers. The Jacobins were so called from an 
old convent in which the first meetings of the club were held. 
The objects of the society were to watch for conspiracies of the 
royalists, and by constant agitation to keep alive the flame of the 
Revolution. Its membership embraced many of the leaders of the 
Commune of Paris, besides various deputies of the National As- 
sembly, among whom was Robespierre. Branch societies were 
formed in all the great cities throughout France, and in time the 
organization grew into a most formidable political power, and 
assumed to direct and control the Revolution. 

The Cordeliers were named after a Franciscan convent, where 
their assemblies were held. Their most prominent leaders were 
Danton and Marat. The Cordeliers were radical republicans, or, 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 593 

more properly, communists. "They affected extreme poverty, 
dressed shabbily, and their club-room was lighted with only a few 
tallow candles. At first they were the more violent of the two 
clubs, but as the Revolution advanced, the Jacobins far outstripped 
them." 

The New Constitution. — The work of the National Assembly 
was now drawing to a close. On the 14th of September, 1791, 
the new constitution framed by the body, which instrument made 
the government of France a constitutional monarchy, was solemnly 
ratified by the king. The National Assembly, having sat nearly 
three years, then adjourned (Sept. 30, 1 791). The first scene 
in the drama of the French Revolution was ended. 

~J 

III. The Legislative Assembly (Oct. 1, 1791-Sept. 21, 1792). 

The Three Parties. — The new constitution provided for a 
national legislature to be called the Legislative Assembly. The 
election for delegates to this new body had been held before the 
dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, and two days after that 
event the new deputies convened at Paris. 

By what was called a self-denying ordinance the old assembly 
had excluded all of its members from sitting in the new body. 
As a result it was made up of men inexperienced in the conduct 
of national affairs. The youthful appearance of the members also 
caused remark ; there was scarcely a single white head to be seen 
in the assembly. 

The body, comprising 745 members, was divided into three 
parties : the Constitutionalists, or Feuillants ; the Girondists, or 
Moderates ; and the Mountainists, or Red Republicans. The 
Constitutionalists of course supported the new constitution, being 
in favor of a limited monarchy. The Girondists, so called from 
the name (La Giro ink) of the department whence came the 
most noted of its members, wished to establish in France such a 
republic as the American colonists had just set up in the New 
World. The leader of this party was Roland, the Minister of the 



594 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Interior ; or, rather, their leader was a woman — Madame Roland, 
the wife of the minister. At her house the meetings of the chiefs 
of the Girondists were held, and the influence over them of this 
gifted woman was unbounded. 

The Mountainists, who took their name from their lofty seats in 
the assembly, were radical republicans, or levelers. Many of them 
were members of the Jacobin club or that of the Cordeliers. The 
leaders of this faction were Marat, Danton, and Robespierre, 
— names of terror in the subsequent records of the Revolution. 

The Temper of the Assembly. — Some seemingly trivial matters 
will serve to illustrate the spirit of the new assembly. At the very 
outset the members were very much perplexed in regard to how 
they should address the king and " wound neither the national 
dignity nor the royal dignity." Some were for using the titles 
Sire and Majesty, against which others indignantly protested, de- 
claring that " the Law and the People are the only Majesty.' 1 It 
was finally decided that Louis XVI. should be called simply King 
of the French. 

Another thing which troubled the republican members was the 
gilded throne in which the king was wont to sit when he visited 
the assembly. It was resolved that this article should be removed, 
and an ordinary chair substituted for it, this to be placed in exact 
line with that occupied by the President of the Assembly. 

Again, there were objections raised to the ceremony of the mem- 
bers rising and standing uncovered in the king's presence. So it 
was decreed that the members might sit before Royalty with their 
hats on. 

The members of the Assembly were at first much irritated by 
some imagined lack of reverence shown them by the king, who 
kept them waiting for the royal address ; but finally the king 
appeared in the chamber and made a sensible and soothing 
speech, so that hope and confidence seemed again to find a* place 
in all hearts. The hope expressed by the Constituent Assembly 
appeared to have been realized, and France to be regenerated. 
Festivities everywhere throughout the gay capital were the tokens 



THE MASSACRE OF THE SWISS GUARDS. 595 

of joy and reconciliation. But the tranquility of the moment was 
only the delusive lull in which the tempest gathers strength for a 
fresh outbreak of its fury. 

War with the Old Monarchies. — The kings of Europe were 
watching with the utmost anxiety the course of events in France. 
They regarded the cause of Louis XVI. as their own. If the 
French people should be allowed to overturn the throne of their 
hereditary sovereign, who any longer would have respect for the 
divine rights of kings? The old monarchies of Europe therefore 
resolved that the revolutionary movement in France, a movement 
threatening all aristocratical and monarchial institutions, should be 
crushed, and that these heretical French doctrines respecting the 
Sovereignty of the People and the Rights of Man should be 
proved false by the power of royal armies. 

The warlike preparations of Frederick William III. of Prussia 
and the Emperor Francis II., awakened the apprehensions of the 
revolutionists, and led the Legislative Assembly to declare war 
against them (April 20, 1792). A little later, the allied armies of 
the Austrians and Prussians, numbering more than 100,000 men, 
and made up in part of the French emigrant nobles, passed the 
frontiers of France. The forces of the Assembly were entrusted 
to the command of Dumouriez. Thus were taken the first steps 
in a series of wars Avhich were destined to la^.t nearly a quarter of 
a century, and in which France almost single-handed was to 
struggle against the leagued powers of Europe, and to illustrate 
the miracles possible to enthusiasm and genius. 

The Massacre of the Swiss Guards (Aug. 10, 1792). — The 
allies at first gained easy victories over the ill-disciplined forces of 
the Legislative Assembly, and the Duke of Brunswick, at the head 
of an immense army, advanced rapidly upon Paris. An insolent 
proclamation which this commander now issued (July 26, 1792), 
wherein he ordered the French nation to submit to their king, and 
threatened the Parisians with the destruction of their city should 
any harm be done the royal family, drove the French people 
frantic with indignation and rage. 



596 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

In Paris occurs the first outbreak of the popular fury. The 
people, " hounded on by Prussian Terror, by Preternatural Suspi- 
cion" (they believed the king false and in communication with the 
allies), demanded that the king be deposed. The Assembly was 
irresolute, and hesitated. The Commune of Paris also lacking 
courage and decision to go to the lengths demanded by the people, 
it was crowded out of the city hall by a usurping board, consisting 
of three "full-power delegates" from each of the forty-eight sec- 
tions, — violent men most of them, and fully in accord with the 
Parisian mob. Thus did the " Insurrection make itself a Head." 
Now it could act under the semblance of legality and constituted 
authority. 

Meanwhile the gathering hordes of the capital were swollen by 
the arrival of bands of desperate men from all parts of France. 
From the South come the " six hundred Marseillese who know how 
to die." The simple orders which they bore from their municipal 
authorities were "to strike down the tyrant." They brought with 
them "a better contingent than ten thousand pikemen" — the 
Marseillaise Hymn, the martial song of the Revolution. The 
stirring anthems of Tyrtseus did not more for the Spartans in the 
Messenian struggle than did this hymn for the French revolution- 
ists in their struggle with despotism. 

The capital was now ready to strike a blow which should carry 
dismay to the hearts of the royalists. Aug. 9, 1792, the bells of 
Paris rang out the signal — " the same metal that rang storm two 
hundred and twenty years ago ; but by a Majesty's order then, on 
Saint Bartholomew's Eve." 

By morning the hordes of the forty-eight sections were mustered. 
The Palace of the Tuileries, defended by a few hundred Swiss 
soldiers, the remnant of the royal guard, was assaulted. The royal 
family fled for safety to the hall of the Assembly near by. A terri- 
ble struggle followed in the corridors and upon the grand stairways 
of the Palace. The Swiss stood " steadfast as the granite of their 
Alps." But they were overwhelmed at last, and all were murdered, 
either in the building itself or in the surrounding courts and streets. 



THE MASSACRE OF SEPTEMBER. 597 

Some having climbed for refuge upon the monuments in the gar- 
dens of the Tuileries, the mob forced them to descend to their 
slaughter by pricking them with bayonets, not firing upon them 
through fear of injury to the statues to which they clung ;" an 
instance of taste for art," says Alison, " mingled with revolutionary 
cruelty, unparalleled in the history of the world ! " 

The Flight of Lafayette. — The events of the ioth of August 
hastened the steps of the Revolution. The Legislative Assembly 
resolved that a great national convention should be called for the 
21st of September to direct the future course of the state. Mean- 
while the king was suspended from the exercise of royal authority, 
and with his family committed as a prisoner to the Temple, a 
strong castle of the ancient order of the Templars. 

The army of the allies hurried on towards the capital, to avenge 
the slaughter of the royal guards and rescue the king. The rapid 
advance of the enemy alarmed the revolutionists. That the in- 
vaders might receive no aid from royalists within, all persons sus- 
pected of sympathizing with the king were seized and hurried to 
prison. The jails of the capital were crowded with aristocrats and 
other supposed enemies of the Revolution. 

Lafayette strove to moderate the fury of the people, to save the 
king and the new constitution, and to hold the country back from 
the anarchy into which he saw it was drifting. But his moderatism 
offended the people ; his popularity and influence were lost, and 
he was obliged to flee for his life. He escaped across the frontier, 
but was arrested by the Austrians and thrown into prison, where 
he remained four years. 

The Massacre of Septemher (" Jail Delivery "). — In the 
meanwhile the armies of the allies were advancing, and the city 
of Verdun was invested. The capital was all excitement. " We 
must stop the enemy," cried Danton, "by striking tenor into the 
royalists." To this end the most atrocious measures were now- 
adopted. It was resolved that all the royalists confined in the jails 
of the capital should be murdered. Marat and Danton, the leaders 
of the Commune of Paris, were the chief instigators of the horrible 



598 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

plot. A hundred or more assassins were hired to butcher the 
prisoners. 

A report that Verdun had fallen, and that in a few days the 
enemy would be in front of Paris, precipitated events. The Com- 
mune of the capital ordered all the citizens under arms. The 
Assembly sent twelve of their number to the camp without the 
city, '" not to make exhortations, but to wield the spade with their 
own hands, in the sight of all the citizens." Swift couriers, on 
motion of Danton, were despatched in all directions, to arouse the 
nation. "To conquer our enemies," cried the same speaker, "we 
must annihilate them." The assassins were ordered to their work. 
Some of the prisoners were confined in the churches of the city. 
The murderers first entered these, and the unfortunate priests who 
had refused to take oath to support the new constitution, were 
butchered in heaps about the altars. The jails were now visited, 
one after another, the persons confined within slaughtered, and 
their bodies thrown out to the brutal hordes that followed the 
butchers to enjoy the carnival of blood. 

When the assassins grew weary, refreshments were brought 
them — " bread and wine for the laborers who were delivering the 
nation from its enemies." Refreshed by the bread and the wine, 
and hounded on by the impatient mob, they resumed their work 
of emancipating France. 

The victims of this terrible "September Massacre," as it is called, 
are estimated at from six to fourteen thousand. Europe had never 
before known such a "jail delivery." It was the greatest crime of 
the French Revolution. It is asserted that not more than three 
hundred ruffians took actual part in the massacre. But thousands 
more became accessories by cheering on the "laborers," and a 
still larger part of the population of the city became participators 
in their guilt by irresolutely acquiescing in the deed or afterwards 
justifying it. " Had they been allowed to live," was the very gen- 
eral comment, " they would have murdered us in a few days." 
The Legislative Assembly might doubtless have put a stop to the 
assassinations, had its leaders really been desirous of doing so. 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 599 

The Commune of Paris unequivocally endorsed the action of its 
committee. The books of the body exhibit to this day us one 
item of expenditure at this time the sum of 1,463 livres paid to the 
assassins for their labors. 

Defeat of the Allies. — After the flight of Lafayette the supreme 
command of the French armies was given to General Dumouriez, 
who was successful in checking the advance of the enemy; and 
finally at Valmy (Sept. 20, 1792) succeeded in inflicting upon 
them a decisive defeat, which caused their hasty retreat beyond the 
frontiers of France. The day after this victory the Legislative 
Assembly came to an end, and the following day the National 
Convention assembled. / 

IV. The National Convention (Sept. 21, 1792 -Get. 26, 1795). 

Parties in the Convention. — The Convention, consisting of 
seven hundred and forty-nine deputies, among whom was the 
celebrated infidel Tom Paine, was divided into two parties, the 
Girondists and the Mountainists. There were no monarchists ; all 
were republicans. No one dared to speak of a monarchy. The 
Girondists, or moderate republicans, had the advantage of numbers, 
being in the majority ; but the Mountainists, headed by Marat, 
Danton, and Robespierre, the last two being the representatives of 
Paris, were superior in energy and daring, and were, moreover, 
backed by the Parisian mob. This party was resolved not only 
on the formation of a Republic, but also on the death of the 
king. 

The Establishment of the Republic (Sept. 21, 1792). — The 
very first act of the Convention on its opening day was to abolish 
the Monarchy and proclaim France a Republic. The motion lor 
the abolition of Royalty was not even discussed. "What need is 
there for discussion," exclaimed a delegate, "where all are agreed? 
Courts are the hot-bed of crime, the focus of corruption ; the his- 
tory of kings is the martyrology of nations." 

A "stentorian trumpeter" was deputed to proclaim the decree 



600 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

of the Convention, beneath the Temple Tower where the royal 
family were confined. The king was reading, heard the decree, 
for the dead alone could be deaf to that republican trumpet, but 
" did not lift his eyes from his book." Thus fell Royalty in France, 
amidst the " utmost enthusiasm." 

All titles of nobility were also abolished. Every one was to be 
addressed simply as citizen. In the debates of the Convention, 
the king was alluded to as Citizen Capet, and on the street the 
shoeblack was called Citizen Shoeblack. 

The day following the proclamation of the Republic (Sept. 
22, 1792) was made the beginning of a new era, the first day of 
the Year I. That was to be regarded as the natal day of Liberty. 
A little later (November 19), excited by the success of the French 
armies, — the Austrians and Prussians had been beaten, and Bel- 
gium conquered and made a part of the French Republic, — the 
Convention called upon all nations to rise against despotism, and 
pledged the aid of France to any people wishing to secure 
freedom. 

Trial and Execution of the King (Jan. 21, 1793). — The next 
work of the Convention was the trial and execution of the king. 
On the nth of December, 1792, he was brought before the bar of 
that body, charged with having conspired with the enemies of 
France, of having opposed the will of the people, and of having 
caused the massacre of the 10th of August. 

The proceedings were the mockery of a trial. Among the 
Girondists the unhappy king found earnest defenders ; but the 
threats of the Jacobin leaders within, and the howlings of the mob 
without, sealed his fate. " What have not the friends of Liberty to 
fear," cried Robespierre, "when they see the axe unsteady in our 
grasp. . . . The last proof of devotion which we owe to our country 
is to stifle in our hearts every sentiment of sensibility." 

The sentence of the Convention was immediate death. On 
January 21, 1793, the unfortunate monarch, after a last sad inter- 
view with his wife and children, was conducted to the scaffold. 
Upon his attempting to address the people, his voice was drowned 



THE REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL, ETC. 601 

with the roll of drums, and the executioner quickly pushed his neck 
beneath the knife of the guillotine. " Son oi St. Louis," exclaimed 

his faithful confessor, " ascend to Heaven." The knife flashed 
through its grooves, and the head of Louis XVI. was severed from 
its body. " Vive la Republique" burst from the surrounding multi- 
tudes, and echoed through the empty halls of the neighboring 
Palace of the Tuileries. 

Coalition against France. —The regicide awakened the most 
bitter hostility against the Trench revolutionists, among all the old 
monarchies of Europe. The act was interpreted as a threat against 
all kings. A grand coalition, embracing Prussia, Austria. England, 
Sweden, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Piedmont, Naples, the Hoi) 
and later, Russia, was formed to crush the republican movement. 
Armies aggregating more than a quarter of a million of men threat- 
ened France at once on every frontier. 

While thus beset with foes without, the Republic was threatened 
with even more dangerous enemies within. The people of La 
Vendee, in Western France, whose sympathies had not gone 
with the leaders of the Convention, but who still retained their 
simple reverence for Royalty, Nobility, and the Church, rose in 
revolt against the sweeping innovations of the revolutionists. 

To meet all these dangers which threatened the life of the new- 
born Republic, the Convention ordered a levy, which placed 
300,000 men in the field. The stirring Marseillaise Hymn, sung 
by the marching bands, awakened everywhere a martial fervor. 

Leaving the armies of the Revolution fighting insurrection in the 
South, and invasion on the frontiers, we must now turn to watch 
the movement of events at the capital. 

The Revolutionary Tribunal and Committee of Public Safety. 
The defeat of the French armies in the North, and uprisings of the 
royalists in the West and elsewhere, caused the greatest excitement 
among the Parisian populace, who now demanded that the Con- 
vention should overawe the enemies of the Revolution by the estab- 
lishment of a judicial dictatorship, a sort of tribunal which should 
take cognizance of all conspiracies against the Republic-. 



602 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

In denouncing the proposed tribunal, a Girondist leader ex- 
claimed, " Better die than consent to the establishment of such a 
Venetian inquisition." "It is," cried another, " to enable men to 
murder innocence under the shadow of law." On the other hand, 
Danton, while acknowledging the injustice that its summary pro- 
cesses might do to many unjustly suspected, justified its establish- 
ment by arguing that in time of peace society lets the guilty escape 
rather than harm the innocent ; but in times of public danger it 
should rather strike down the innocent than allow the guilty to 
escape. 

A little later was organized what was called the Committee of 
Public Safety, consisting of nine persons, members of the Conven- 
tion. It was invested with dictatorial power. Danton urged the 
formation of this arbitrary executive body as the only expedient 
that would enable the nation to act with that dispatch and energy 
needful to save the Republic. The vast powers wielded by this 
committee were delegated to it at first only for a single month. 

We must bear in mind the character of these two bodies in order 
to follow intelligently the subsequent events of the Revolution, and 
to understand how the atrocious tyranny of the Reign of Terror was 
exercised and maintained. Never did Revolution have placed in 
its hands two more perfect and terrible instruments of despotism. 
The Committee of Public Safety contained the germ of a Roman 
Triumvirate, and the Revolutionary Tribunal that of a Spanish 
Inquisition. 

The Fall of the Girondists (June 2, 1793). — Still gloomier tid- 
ings came from every quarter, — news of reverses to the armies of 
the Republic in front of the allies, and of successes of the counter- 
revolutionists in La Vendee and other provinces. The Mountain- 
ists in the Convention, supported by the Commune of Paris, the 
Jacobins, and the sans-culottes, or rabble, of the capital, urged the 
most extreme measures. They proposed that " all civil business 
should be laid aside, . . . that the theatres should be closed, that the 
tocsin should be sounded, and the alarm-gun fired." The car- 
riages of the wealthy were to be seized, and in them 30,000 volun- 



THE FALL OF THE GIRONDISTS. 603 

teers hurried by post to the seat of war. The expenses of the 
government were to be met by forced contributions from the rich, 
who, after reserving a small amount of their income for their own 
use, were to be required to turn the remainder over to the public 
treasury. 

The moderate party in the Convention opposed these commu- 
nistic measures, and likened Paris to ancient Rome, in aspiring to 
rule over subject provinces. The Jacobins, in their clubs, de- 
nounced the Girondists as responsible, through their irresolute, 
half-way measures, for all the dangers that surrounded the Republic. 
Conspiracies were formed to assassinate them in their seats in the 
Convention. The Girondists, undismayed by the threatening mob 
that surrounded the hall of the Convention day after day, boldly 
maintained their attitude of resistance to what they regarded as 
anarchical measures. One of their chiefs, Isnard, referring to the 
cries of " Down with the Girondists," exclaimed, " If the person of 
the people's representatives be violated, Paris will be destroyed, 
and soon the stranger will be compelled to inquire on which bank 
of the Seine the city stood." 

The Moderates, being yet in the majority in the Convention, 
determined to assert the independence of their body, and call the 
anarchists to account for the prevailing disorders. A commission 
of twelve was appointed to arrest and punish the instigators of the 
mob. Hebert, the editor of a most vile and inflammatory news- 
paper, was arrested, whereupon a hideous mob rushed to the cham- 
ber of the Convention, demanded his immediate release, and the 
suppression of the commission. The Girondists were forced to bow 
to the storm. In that concession may be read their doom. 

Ten days afterwards (June 2, 1793) the mob, 80,000 strong, it 
is asserted, surrounded the Convention, and demanded that the 
Girondists be given up as enemies of the Republic. They were sur- 
rendered, and placed under arrest, a preliminary step to their 
speedy execution during the opening days of the Reign of Terror, 
which had now begun. 

Thus did the Parisian mob purge the National Convention of 



604 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

France, as the army purged Parliament in the English Revolution. 
That mob were now masters, not only of the capital, but of France 
as well. There is nothing before France now but anarchy, and the 
dictator to whom anarchy always gives birth. The Girondist leader, 
Vergniaud, had, just before this time, amidst the disgraceful scenes 
attending the dispute between the Moderates and the Mountainists, 
pictured- the course of events with prophetic vision. " Citizens," 
said he, " there is too much reason to dread that the Revolution, 
like Saturn, will successively devour all its progeny, and finally 
leave only despotism, with all its attendant horrors." 

The Reign of Tei'ro?' (June 2, 1793 -July 27, 1794). 

Opening of the Reign of Terror. — As soon as the expulsion of 
the Moderates had given the Extremists control of the Convention, 
they proceeded to carry out their policy of terrorism. Supreme 
power was vested in the Committee of Public Safety, which now 
became a terrific engine of tyranny and cruelty. Each of the 
twelve members composing the board assumed the government of 
an allotted portion of France, and in this district his power was 
absolute. Marat was president of the Committee, and Danton 
and Robespierre were both members. 

The scenes which now followed are only feebly illustrated by 
the proscriptions of Sulla and Marius in ancient Rome. All aris- 
tocrats, all persons suspected of lukewarmness in the cause of 
liberty, were ordered to the guillotine. Hundreds were murdered 
simply because their wealth was wanted. Others fell, not because 
they were guilty of any political offense, but on account of having 
in some way incurred the personal displeasure of the dictators. 
These infamous tyrants even went so far as to cancel their per- 
sonal obligations to friends by beheading such persons as these 
friends might wish to have put out of the way. 

Charlotte Corday : Assassination of Marat (July 13, 1793). — 
The atrocious tyranny of the revolutionary leaders at Paris caused 
the inhabitants of almost all the departments of the country to 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 605 

fly to arms. At this moment appeared the Joan of Arc of the 

Revolution. A maiden of Caen, in Normandy, Charlotte Corday 
by name, conceived the idea of delivering France from the terrors 
of proscription and civil war, by going to Paris and killing Marat, 
whom she regarded as the head of the tyranny. With unfaltering 
resolution she carried out her determination. She went to the 
capital, and, on pretence of wishing to reveal to Marat something 
of importance about the Girondists at Caen, gained admission to 
his rooms, and stabbed him to the heart. . < 

Marat is represented to us as a hideous monster, a leprous 
dwarf, who seemed in his ferocious, livid features to image the 
crime and delirium of the Revolution. He was called the "scare- 
crow of children," who fled in fright when he passed along the 
street. At the moment of his assassination he was lying, wrapped 
in filthy rags, in a bath, a position he was forced to assume on 
account of the diseased condition of his body. He was smeared 
with ink, and upon a board lying across the bath were the articles 
he was getting ready for his infamous paper. Such was the awful 
monster who was called the " Friend of the People," and who at 
the moment the dagger of Charlotte Corday found his heart held 
in his hands the life of every person in France. 

The obsequies of the tyrant were designed to suggest those of 
Julius C?esar. The bath in which he was slain, the knife that had 
pierced his heart, the pen that had fallen from his hand when he 
received the blow, and the manuscript smeared with blood were 
placed by his bier, that these emblems, like the pierced robe of 
Caesar, might inflame the passions of the multitudes. ( Her the 
body, the speakers of the Jacobins and Cordeliers, in imitation of 
Mark Antony, called upon the people to vow vengeance upon all 
enemies of the Republic. 

The fate of Charlotte Corday is briefly told. Immediately after 
the murder she was seized, and barely escaped being torn to 
pieces by the infuriated mob. When asked what had led her to 
the commission of the deed, she replied, " I saw civil war ready to 
rend France to atoms : persuaded that Marat was the principal 



606 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

cause of the perils and calamities of the land, I have sacrificed my 
life for his to save my country." 

She was soon led to the guillotine. Her calmness and radiant 
beauty touched many hearts, but not that of her executioner, who, 
lifting her head as it fell beneath the knife of the guillotine, wan- 
tonly struck the cheek, at which indignity the face, it is asserted, 
flushed a deep crimson. 

Events after the Death of Marat. — The enthusiasm of Char- 
lotte Corday had led her to believe that the death of Marat would 
be a fatal blow to the power of the Mountainists. But it only 
served to drive them to still greater excesses, under the lead of 
Danton and Robespierre. She died to staunch the flow of her 
country's blood ; but, as Lamartine says, " her poniard appeared 
to have opened the veins of France." The prophetic Vergniaud, 
the eloquent chief of the Girondists, when intelligence of the deed 
and of the fate of the maiden was brought to him in his prison, 
said, " She destroys us ; but she teaches us how to die." Soon 
enough were they to be called upon to show how well they had 
learned the lesson. 

A sort of frenzy appeared now to seize the revolutionists, who 
displayed an almost preternatural energy in preparing France to 
meet her increasing perils. The Convention ordered all persons 
above the age of fifteen to devote themselves to the public service. 
The young were to join the mustering armies ; the old to serve 
their country by stirring up the people with revolutionary ad- 
dresses ; the women were to act as nurses, and to make clothing 
for the army ; the children were to scrape lint and make band- 
ages for the wounded. Enthusiasm and terrorism — for the 
guillotine was everywhere striking off the heads of the disaffected 
— combined to secure the execution of the edicts of the Conven- 
tion, and the decrees of the Committee of Public Safety. More 
than a million of men were put in the field. The flame of insur- 
rection in the departments was quenched in deluges of blood. 
Some of the cities that had been prominent centres of the counter- 
revolution were made a terrible example of the vengeance of the 



EXECUTION OF MARIE ANTOINETTE. 607 

revolutionists. Lyons was an object of special hatred to the 
tyrants. 

Respecting this place the Convention passed the following de- 
cree : " The city of Lyons shall be destroyed : every house occu- 
pied by a rich man shall be demolished ; only the dwellings of the 
poor shall remain, with edifices specially devoted to industry, and 
monuments consecrated to humanity and public education." l So 
thousands of men were set to work to pull down the city. " In 
six months," says Taine, " the Republic expends fifteen millions in 
destroying property valued at three or four hundred millions, 
belonging to the Republic. Since the Mongols of the fifth and 
thirteenth centuries, no such vast and irrational waste had been 
seen — such frenzy against the most profitable fruits of industry 
and human civilization." 

The Convention further decreed that a monument should be 
erected upon the ruins of Lyons with this inscription : " Lyons 
opposed Liberty ! Lyons is no more ! " 2 ^ 

Execution of Marie Antoinette (Oct. 16, 1793). — The rage of 
the revolutionists was now turned anew against the remaining 
members of the royal family, by the European powers proclaiming 
the Dauphin King of France. The queen, who had now borne 
nine months' imprisonment in a close dungeon, was brought before 
the terrible Revolutionary Tribunal and condemned to the guillo- 
tine. Given an opportunity to speak, she only said : " I was a 
queen, and you took away my crown ; a wife, and you killed my 
husband ; a mother, and you robbed me of my children ; my 
blood alone remains, take it, but do not make me suffer long." 

The queen was conveyed in a common cart to the same spot 
where, almost exactly one year before, her husband had suffered. 
When she first appeared in the chamber of the dread tribunal, with 
her robes disordered, her hair white from anguish, and her face 
furrowed with sorrow, — so changed from that fair vision of beauty 

1 Tainc's VV/o French Revolution, Vol. III. p. 39. 

2 Ibid., Vol. III. p. 40. 



608 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

once the centre of the brilliant court of Versailles, 1 — a wave of pity- 
had rushed over the hearts of all beholders ; but the rising tide of 
sentiment had been checked, and now a hideous mob of men and 
women howled with savage delight around the cart which bore the 
unhappy queen to the scaffold. 

We need not speak of the faults of Marie Antoinette, though they 
were many; her sufferings, her patience, and her heroism were 
ample atonement for them all. " The pathos of her story will ever 
blind the eyes of her judges." 

Madame Roland. — The guillotine was now fed with the most 
illustrious victims. Two weeks after the execution of the queen, 
twenty-one of the chiefs of the Girondists, who had been kept in 
confinement since their arrest in the Convention, were pushed be- 
neath the knife. Philip Egalite, Duke of Orleans, who the people 
thought had designs upon the throne, was next executed. Hun- 
dreds of others followed. Day after day the carnival of death went 
on. Seats were arranged for the people, who crowded to the spec- 
tacle as to a theatre. The women busied their hands with their 
knitting, while their eyes feasted upon the swiftly- changing scenes 
of the horrid drama. 

Most illustrious of all the victims after the queen was Madame 
Roland, who was accused of being the friend of the Girondists. 
Woman has always acted a prominent part in the great events of 
French history, because the grand ideas and sentiments which have 
worked so powerfully upon the imaginative and impulsive tempera- 
ment of the men of France, have appealed with a still more fatal 
attraction to her more romantic and generously enthusiastic 
nature. 

A little incident at the scaffold lights up the character of the 

1 " It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, 
then the dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which 
she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the 
horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move 
in, — glittering like the morning star; full of life and splendor and joy." 
Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution. 



SWEEPING CHANGES AND REFORMS. 609 

patriotic Madame Roland. As she was about to lay her head 
beneath the knife, her eye fell upon the statue of Liberty which 
stood near the scaffold. '< O Liberty!" she exclaimed, "what 
crimes are committed in thy name ! " 

But thus it has ever been. The worst crimes that soil the pages 
of history have been committed in the name of that which is 
holiest, — in the name of Liberty, or Justice, or Religion. 

Sweeping Changes and Reforms. —The revolutionists in the 
scenes about the guillotine had sunk to the lowest depths of brutal 
insensibility; they were now in their work of presumptuous innova- 
tion to touch the heights of audacious impiety. While clearing 
away the enemies of France and of liberty, they were also busy 
making the most sweeping changes in the ancient institutions and 
customs of the land. They hated these as having been established 
by kings and aristocrats to enhance their own importance and 
power, and to enthrall the masses. They proposed to sweep these 
things all aside, and give the world a fresh start. 

A new system of weights and measures, known as the metrical, 
was planned, and a new mode of reckoning time was introduced. 
The first of these reforms — that respecting weights and measures 
— was a most admirable one, and must be named among the good 
and lasting results of the Revolution. That regarding the division 
of time did not survive the innovating spirit of the age that con- 
ceived it. The date of the era had already been changed. It was 
the divisions of the year that the reformers now attacked. They 
wished to divide the year into ten parts ; but the conduct of the 
moon in making twelve revolutions in a year instead of ten. pre- 
vented this arrangement. Not being able to change the number 
of the months, they altered their names, giving them titles expres- 
sive of the character of each. Thus the winter months were 
named Snowy, Rainy, Windy ; the spring months, Buddy, Flowery. 
Meadowy, and so on through the list. 1 

1 The French names were as follows, beginning with the first autumn 
month, as in the new system September 22 marked the opening of the year: 
Vendemiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire — the fall months; Nivose, Pluvi 



610 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Each month was divided into three periods of ten days each, 
called decades, and each day into ten parts. The tenth day of 
each decade took the place of the old sabbath. The five odd 
days not provided for in the arrangement were made festival days 
to Genius, Labor, Noble Actions, Reward, and Opinion. During 
this last festival everybody was to be perfectly free to say or write 
whatever he pleased about magistrates, and all persons holding 
public positions. 

This institution of the Festival of Opinion seems to have been 
the only matter in which the bold reformers of the Revolution 
were behind us of the present age. They gave up only one day 
in the year to unrestrained abuse and calumny ; whereas we set 
apart the entire year as a Carnival of Opinion. 

Abolition of Christianity. — With these reforms effected, the 
revolutionists next proceeded to the more difficult task of subvert- 
ing the ancient institutions of religion. 

Straightway after the execution of the queen, the Convention 
had ordered that the tombs of the kings of France at St. Denis 
should be destroyed. A wild Parisian mob hastened to execute 
the decree of the Assembly. The sepulchres were broken open, 
and their ashes scattered to the winds. The iconoclastic delirium 
spread throughout the country, and everywhere the monuments of 
the past that in any way recalled royalty or nobility were over- 
turned and broken in fragments. " The skulls of monarchs and 
heroes," says Alison, "were tossed about like footballs by the pro- 
fane multitude ; like the grave-diggers in Hamlet, they made a jest 
of the lips before which nations had trembled." 

With Royalty on earth destroyed, the revolutionists next attacked 
the sovereignty of Heaven. Some of the chiefs of the Commune 
of Paris declared that the Revolution should not rest until it had 
" dethroned the King of Heaven as well as the kings of earth." 

An attempt was made by the extremists to have Christianity 
abolished by a decree of the National Convention : but that body, 

— the winter months; Germinal, Floreal, Prairial — the spring months; Messi- 
dor, Thermidor, Fructidor — the summer months. 



ABOLITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 611 

fearing such an act might alienate many who were still attached to 
the Church, resolved that all matters of creeds should be left to 
the decision of the people themselves. 

The atheistic chiefs of the Commune of the capital, foremost 
among whom was Chaumette, now determined to effect their pur- 
pose through the Church itself. Their plan was to persuade the 
Bishop of Paris, Gobel by name, to abdicate his office, believing 
that the example of the pontiff would be followed by the clergy 
throughout the country, and France be thus emancipated from 
what they denounced as a system of fraud, superstition, and 
fanaticism. 

The bishop was prevailed upon to set the initiative. In order 
that his action might have full effect, it was arranged that it should 
be made the prominent feature of a public and imposing cere- 
mony. Accompanied by the members of the Commune and all 
of the municipal authorities of Paris, the bishop appeared before 
the National Convention, and being introduced to its members, 
spoke as follows : " When the people wanted bishops, I suffered 
myself to be made a bishop. I cease to be so when the people 
do not desire to have any." 

Thereupon he laid down his mitre, which he bore in his hands, 
and the other symbols of his sacred office. The President of the 
Convention replied : " This assembly has decreed freedom to all 
creeds, and resolved to interfere with none ; but it applauds those, 
who, enlightened by reason, come to renounce their superstitions 
and their errors." 

The priests who accompanied the bishop now hastened to fol- 
low his example, and abjure the Christian faith. Transported by 
the enthusiasm of the moment, many of the clergy members of 
the Convention arose and abdicated their office, and renounced 
their creed. As the apostate priests followed one after another. 
Catholic and Protestant, the hall echoed with tremendous ap- 
plause. Thus was initiated the abolition of the Christian religion 
in France (Nov. 7, 1793). 

The churches of Paris and of a great number of other cities, 



612 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

which hastened to follow the example of the capital, were now 
closed, and the treasures of their altars and shrines confiscated to 
the State. The bells were melted down into cannon and muskets. 

The images of the Virgin and of the Christ were torn down, 
and the busts of Marat and other patriots set up in their stead. 
And as the emancipation of the world was now to be wrought, not 
by the Cross, but by the guillotine, that instrument took the place 
of the crucifix, and was called the Holy Guillotine. All the visi- 
ble symbols of the ancient religion were destroyed. All emblems 
of hope in the cemeteries were obliterated, and over their gates 
were inscribed the words, "Death is eternal sleep." 

The Worship of Reason. — The madness of the people cul- 
minated in the worship of what was called the Goddess of Reason. 
The cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris was converted into a Tem- 
ple for the use of the new worship, which was inaugurated at the 
capital with a grand festival and procession (Nov. 10, 1793). All 
the municipal authorities of the city participated in the ceremonies. 
A celebrated beauty, impersonating the Goddess of Reason, was 
elevated upon a throne borne on the shoulders of men, and thus 
carried in triumph through the city to the hall of the Convention. 
There one of the chiefs of the Commune, addressing the members 
of the assembly, while he pointed to the Goddess, said : " France 
has abandoned inanimate idols for Reason, for that animated 
image, the masterpiece of Nature." The Goddess, stepping from 
her throne, approached the President of the Convention, who 
embraced and kissed her. Carried away by the scene, the multi- 
tudes that crowded the hall burst into tumultuous applause, and 
the building echoed with cries of " Reason forever !"" Down 
with fanaticism !" 

The procession, drawing with it the members of the Convention, 
now returned to Notre Dame, whence it had set out, and there the 
Goddess was placed upon the altar of what henceforth was to be 
the Temple of Reason. 

The example of Paris was followed throughout France. 
Churches were everywhere converted into temples of the new 



FALL OF HUBERT AND DANTON. 613 

worship. The Sabbath having been abolished, the services of the 
temple were held only upon every tenth day. On that da) the 
mayor or some popular leader mounted the altar and harangued 
the people, dwelling upon the news of the moment, the triumphs 
of the armies of the Republic, the glorious achievements of the 
Revolution, and the privilege of living in an era when one was 
oppressed neither by kings on earth, nor by a King in heaven. 

Fall of Hebert and Danton (March and April, 1794). — Not 
quite one year of the Reign of Terror had passed before the rev- 
olutionists, having destroyed or driven into obscurity their com- 
mon enemy, the Girondists, turned upon one another with the 
ferocity of beasts whose appetites has been whetted by the taste 
of blood. 

During the progress of events the Jacobins had become divided 
into three factions, headed respectively by Danton, Robespierre, 
and Hubert. Danton, though he had been a bold and audacious 
leader, was now adopting a more conservative tone, and was con- 
demning the extravagances and cruelties of the Committee of 
Public Safety, of which he had ceased to be a member. 

Hubert was one of the worst demagogues of the Commune, the 
chief and instigator of the Parisian rabble. He was the editor of 
a vile and blasphemous sheet, called Pere Duchesne, the most 
audacious and inflammatory of the papers that appeared during 
the Reign of Terror. He and his followers, the sans-culottes of 
the capital, would overturn everything and refound society upon 
communism and atheism. 

Robespierre occupied a position midway between these two, 
condemning alike the moderatism of Danton and the atheistic 
communism of Hubert. To make his own power supreme he 
resolved to crush both. 

Hebert and his party were the first to foil, Danton and his 
adherents working with Robespierre to bring about their ruin, for 
the Moderates and Anarchists were naturally at bitter enmity. 
The head of Hubert fell amidst the jeers and hisses of the incon- 
stant multitude that only a few days before were exalting him 
almost to divinity (March 24, 1794)- 



614 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Danton and his friends were the next to follow. Little more 
than a week had passed since the execution of Hebert before 
Robespierre had effected their destruction. Danton's popularity 
had failed, but he felt an insolent security in the great reputation 
which his prominent public services had won for him, and he met 
the warnings of his friends respecting the designs of Robespierre 
against his life, with the words : " He dare not ! I defy him to 
touch a hair of my head." But Robespierre, who even already 
controlled the Convention, the committees, the tribunals, — all 
the machinery of the revolutionary government, — managed to * 
secure the arrest and condemnation of Danton and his chief 
friends on the charge of encouraging and conspiring with the 
counter- revolutionists. 

On the 5th of April, 1794, only ten days after the execution of 
Hebert, Danton was sent to the scaffold. His last words to the 
executioner were, " Show my head to the people ; it will be 
well worth the display." The grim request was granted, and the 
head was held aloft to the view of the multitude, who had climbed 
upon wagons and temporary stands to witness the spectacle. At 
the sight of the reeking head of their late favorite, the fickle crowd 
applauded tumultuously. 

With the Anarchists and Moderates both destroyed, Robespierre 
was now supreme. His ambition was attained. " He stood alone 
on the awful eminence of the Holy Mountain." But his turn was 
soon to come. Danton's prophecy, that " as Hebert dragged on 
Danton, Danton would drag on Robespierre," was destined speed- 
ily to be fulfilled. 

Worship of the Supreme Being. — One of the first acts of the 
dictator was to give France a new religion in place of the worship 
of Reason. Robespierre wished to sweep away Christianity as a 
superstition, but he would stop at Deism. He did not believe 
that a state could be founded on Atheism. " Atheism," said he, 
" is aristocratic. The idea of a great being who watches over ' 
oppressed innocence, and who punishes triumphant guilt, is and 
always will be popular. The people, the unfortunate, will ever 



WORSHIP OF THE SUPREME BEING. 615 

applaud it; it will never find detractors save among the rich and 
the guilty. If God did not exist, it would behoove man to invent 
him." 

Again, in a remarkable address, considering the lips from which 
it fell, delivered before the Convention (May 7, 1794), Robes- 
pierre eloquently defended the doctrines of God and immortality, 
and then closed his speech by offering for adoption by the Con- 
vention this decree : ( 1 ) The French people acknowledge the 
existence of the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul ; 
(2) They acknowledge that the worship most worthy of the 
Supreme Being is the practice of the duties of man. — Thiers. 

The Convention adopted the resolution with the "utmost 
enthusiasm." The Jacobins appeared by a committee before the 
assembly and thanked them for the grand decree. Similar con- 
gratulations came from all parts of France. 1 

The churches which had been converted into temples of the 
Goddess of Reason were now consecrated to the new worship of 
the Supreme Being. A short time after the adoption of the decree 
by the Convention, an impressive ceremony, called the Festival of 
the Supreme Being, was celebrated at Paris. It was one of those 
magnificent fetes in the arrangement of which the dramatic genius 
of the French is so splendidly displayed. 

A part of the ceremonies consisted in the burning of the figures 
of Atheism, Discord, and Selfishness. As these disappeared in 
flames, the statue of Wisdom stood forth as though rising from 
their ashes; " but it was remarked that Wisdom was greatly dis- 
figured by the flames of the burning images." 

1 The address of one of the sections of the capital is a good illustration of 
the extravagant declamation of the times: "O beneficent Mountain! pro- 
tecting Sinai ! accept also our expressions of gratitude and congratulations for 
all the sublime decrees which thou art daily issuing for the happiness of man- 
kind. From thy boiling bosom darted the salutary thunder-bolt, which, in 
crushing atheism, gives us genuine republicans the consoling idea of living 
free, in the sight of the Supreme Being, and in expectation of the immortality 
of the soul. The Convention forever! The Republic forever! The Mountain 
forever ! " — THIERS, French Revolution. 



616 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The Terror at Paris. — At the very same time that Robespierre 
was declaiming so speciously about the Virtues, and arranging fetes 
in honor of the Supreme Being, he was desolating France with 
massacres of incredible atrocity, and ruling by a terrorism unparal- 
leled since the most frightful days of Rome. The Committee of 
Public Safety had become a terrible decemvirate, of which Robes- 
pierre was the Appius Claudius. All the popular clubs had been 
suppressed, save those of the Jacobins, through which the v decem- 
virs kept themselves in communication with the masses. Frequent 
meetings of these clubs, which were addressed by the very worst 
demagogues, inflamed the passions of the people, and kept them 
in a sanguinary mood. All the departments of government were 
carried on by means of twelve committees appointed by the 
Committee of Public Safety — committees which were in fact 
simply the creatures of Robespierre, the ready instruments by 
which he carried out his policy of terrorism. The Convention, 
affrighted by the hideous monster it had itself brought forth, was 
cowering before it. The Revolutionary Tribunal, in obedience to 
the demands of Robespierre, had been entirely unhampered in its 
modes of procedure, and " moral conviction" on the part of the 
Judges of the guilt of a person was all that was necessary upon 
which to ground a verdict of death. 

With all power thus gathered in his hands, Robespierre pro- 
ceeded to overawe all opposition and dissent by the wholesale 
slaughters of the guillotine. The prisons of Paris and of the 
departments were crowded with suspected persons, until 200,000 
prisoners were crushed within these republican Bastiles. At Paris 
the dungeons were emptied of their victims and room made for 
fresh ones, by the swift processes of the Revolutionary Tribunal, 
which in mockery of justice caused the prisoners to be brought 
before its bar in companies of ten or fifty. The president of the 
tribunal kept a brace of pistols lying on the desk before him. 
The public prosecutor, named Fouquier-Tinville, was a perfect 
demon. Often a nod or wink from this infamous accuser was 
sufficient to produce in the minds of the Judges the " moral con- 



MASSACRES IN THE PROVINCES. 

viction" which was all that was required to send the unfortunate 
victim to the scaffold. Rank or talent was an inexpiable crime. 
"Were you not a noble?" asks the president, I Mimas, of one of the 
accused. "Yes," was the reply. " Enough \ another," was the 
Judge's verdict. And so on through the long list each day brought 
before the tribunal. 

Carts were in waiting at the doors of this " Palace of Justi< e," 
to carry its victims to the scaffold. A bulletin containing a list 
of the condemned was issued each day by the tribunal, and the 
trembling prisoners in the Bastiles could hear the cries of the 
news-boys beneath their windows : " Here are the names of 
those who have drawn prizes in the lottery of St. Guillotine." 

The scenes about the guillotine were simply infernal. Benrhes 
were arranged around the scaffold and rented to spectators, like 
seats in a theatre. A special sewer had to be constructed to carry 
off the blood of the victims. In die space of a little over a single 
month (from June ioth to July 17th) the number of persons 
guillotined at Paris was 1,285, an average of 34 a day. 

Massacres in the Provinces. — While such was the terrible state 
of things at the capital, matters were even worse in many of the 
other leading cities of France. The scenes at Nantes, Bordeaux, 
Marseilles, and Toulon surpassed, in all the elements of horror, the 
most awful conceptions of the terrific imagination of Dante. The 
agent of the government at Nantes was one Carrier, whose ingen- 
ious atrocities even far exceeded those of the notorious accuser at 
Paris. At first he caused his victims to be shot singly or guillo- 
tined ; but finding these methods too slow, and the disposal of the 
bodies laborious and expensive, the fiendish ingenuity of Carrier 
devised a number of more expeditious modes of execution. To 
these he playfully gave the names of " Republican Baptis 
" Republican Marriages," and "Battu 

The Republican Baptism consisted in crowding a hundred or 
more persons into a vessel, which was then towed out into the 
Loire and scuttled. In the Republican Marriages a man and 
woman were bound together, and then thrown into the river. The 



618 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Battues consisted in ranging the victims in long ranks, and mowing 
them down with discharges of cannon and musket. 

By these various methods fifteen thousand victims were de- 
stroyed in the course of a single month. The entire number 
massacred at Nantes during the Reign of Terror is estimated at 
thirty thousand. What renders these murders the more horrible is 
the fact that a considerable number of the victims were women 
and children. Nantes was at this time crowded with the orphaned 
children of the Vendean counter-revolutionists. These children, 
many of them not more than six or seven years of age, were torn 
from the families that had opened their doors to them, and the 
greater portion of them destroyed.* Upon a single night three 
hundred of these innocents were taken from the city prisons and 
drowned in the Loire. When some one less hardened than Carrier 
interceded for them, he replied, " They are all wolf whelps, they 
are all vipers ; let them be stifled." l 

The Loire from Nantes to the sea was so full of floating bodies 
that a boat could hardly be rowed across it without striking one or 
more. Ships in weighing anchor sometimes drew up the scuttled 
hulls loaded with bodies. The corpses, heaped in great windrows, 
like drift-wood, along the banks of the river, spread fearful epi- 
demics through the adjoining country. The fish of the stream, 
from feeding upon the decomposing bodies, became poisonous, so 
that it was necessary to issue a decree forbidding their use as 
food. 

The Fall of Robespierre (July, 1794). — By such terrorism did 
Robespierre and his creatures rule France for a little more than 
three months. The awful suspense and dread drove many into 

1 " On one occasion," says Alison, " five hundred children of both sexes, 
the oldest of whom was not fourteen years old, were led out to the same spot 
to be shot. The littleness of their stature caused most of the bullets at the 
first discharge to fly over their heads; they broke their bands, rushed into the 
ranks of the executioners, clung around their knees, and sought for mercy. 
But nothing could soften the assassins. They put them to death even when 
lying at their feet." 



THE REACTION. 

insanity and to suicide. The strain was too great for human 
nature to bear. A reaction came. 'The successes of the armies of 
the Republic, and the establishment of the authority of the Con- 
vention throughout the departments, caused the people to look 
upon the massacres that were daily taking place, as unnecc 
and cruel. They began to turn with horror and pity from the 
scenes of the guillotine. The better feelings of the nation were 
gaining the mastery over the brutal passions that, under the incite- 
ment of danger and political fanaticism, had borne such fatal 
sway. 

The first blow at the power of the dictator was struck in the 
Convention. Robespierre was planning the arrest of some of its 
members on the charge of their being counter-revolution ists. A 
member dared to denounce him, upon the floor of the assembly, 
as a tyrant. The spell was broken. The Convention ordered his 
arrest. The Jacobins and the rabble of Paris rallied their hordes, 
and rescued their favorite from the hands of the officers. The 
Convention, knowing that the death struggle had come, hastily 
decreed that Robespierre and all his adherents were enemies of 
the Republic, declared them outlaws, and summoned the National 
Guards to protect the representatives of the nation, and retake 
Robespierre from the hands of his rescuers. The Convention was 
secured and the tyrant rearrested ; not, however, until he had 
inflicted a severe wound upon himself in an unsuccessful attempt 
to commit suicide. 

The next day he was sent to the guillotine with a large number 
of his confederates. The people greeted the fall of the tyrant's 
head with demonstrations of unbounded joy. The delirium was 
over. " France had awakened from the ghastly dream of the 
Reign of Terror" (July 28, 1794)- 

The Reaction. — The reaction which had swept away R< 
pierre and his associates continued after their ruin. The clubs of 
the Jacobins were closed, and that infamous society which had 
rallied and directed the hideous rabbles of the great cities was 
broken up. The deputies that had been driven from their seats in 



620 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

the Convention were invited to resume their places. The Chris- 
tian worship was reestablished. The busts of Marat were thrown 
down, broken in pieces, and flung into the gutter. 

These measures of the Convention did not fail of arousing the 
bitter opposition of the scattered forces of the Terrorists, as they 
were called ; but the better classes of the people rallied to the 
support of the assembly, and dispersed the mobs that several times 
gathered threateningly around the building in which the Conven- 
tion was sitting. 

Successes of the French Arms. — Meanwhile the republican 
generals were making head against the armies of the allies round 
all the frontiers of France : in the South, the French armies held 
possession of the passes of the Alps and Pyrenees, and were ready 
to descend into Italy and Spain ; in the North, Flanders and Hol- 
land had been overrun, and the latter country made into a republic 
under the name of the Batavian Republic (1795) > u P on the East, 
the German army had been pushed back, and important territory 
gained, by the brilliant campaigns of the able commander Hoche. 

These successes of the French led Prussia and Spain to make 
treaties with the Convention, in which they recognized the French 
Republic (1795). 

Napoleon defends the Convention (Oct. 5, 1795). — The 
Reign of Terror had illustrated the defects in the Constitution of 
'93, and the Convention now set about framing a new one, which 
provided for a stronger and more centralized government. There 
were to be two legislative bodies, — the Council of Five Hundred, 
and the Council of the Ancients, embracing 250 persons, of whom 
no one could be under fifty years of age. The executive power 
was vested in a board of five persons, which was called the Direc- 
tory. Each director was to be President in turn for the space of 
three months. 

A party in Paris were displeased with certain features of the 
new constitution. The sections of the turbulent capital again 
gathered their hordes, and on the 5th of October, 1795, a mob of 
forty thousand men advanced to the attack of the Tuileries, where 



THE REPUBLIC BECOMES AGGRESSIVE. 

the Convention was sitting. The assembly had entrusted their de- 
fense to Barras, who selected as his lieutenant Napoleon Bona- 
parte, a young artillery officer — a native of the island of Corsica ' 
— who had made a great reputation for himself at the siege of 
Toulon (in 1793). The young artillerist trained hi- guns in six lfVy*~i 
a manner as to sweep all the avenues leading to the Tuileries. vj 
the mob came on they were met by a storm of grape-shot, which 
sent them flying back in wild disorder. i*** 

The Revolution had at last brought forth a man of genius capa- /jpt 
ble of controlling and directing its tremendous energies. 

V. The Directory. (Oct. 27, 1795 -Nov. 9> 1 799-) 

The Republic becomes Aggressive. — A few weeks after the 
defense of the Convention by Napoleon, that body, declaring its 
labors ended, closed its sessions, and immediately afterwards the 
Councils and the Board of Directors provided for by the new con- 
stitution, assumed control of affairs. 

Under the Directory the Republic, which up to this time had 
been acting mainly on the defensive, entered upon an aggressive 
policy. The Revolution, having accomplished its work in France, 
having there destroyed royal despotism and abolished class privi- 
lege, now set itself about fulfilling its early promise of giving lib- 
erty to all peoples. In a word, the revolutionists became propa- 
gandists. France now exhibits what her historians call her social, 
her communicative genius. "Easily seduced herself," as Lam- 
artine says, "she easily seduces others." She would make all 
Europe like unto herself. Herself a Republic, she would make all 
nations republics. And this was not only a necessity of genius, 
but of circumstances. The French republicans understood per- 
fectly, that their ideas and principles must triumph not only in 
France, but throughout the surrounding countries as well, if the 
Revolution would escape death in its cradle. The Republic must 
conquer or be conquered. The kings of Europe had forced the 
alternative. 

Had not the minds of the people in all the neighboring countries 



622 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

been prepared to welcome the new order of things, the Revolution 
could never have spread itself as widely as it did. But everywhere 
irrepressible longings for social and political equality and freedom, 
born of long oppression, were stirring the souls of men. The 
French armies were everywhere welcomed as deliverers. Thus 
was France enabled to surround herself with a girdle of common- 
wealths. She conquered Europe not by her armies, but by her 
ideas. " An invasion of armies," says Victor Hugo, " can be re- 
sisted : an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted." 

The republics established were, indeed, short-lived; for the 
times were not yet ripe for the complete triumph of democratic 
ideas. But a great gain for freedom was made. The reestablished 
monarchies never dared to make themselves as despotic as those 
which the Revolution had overturned. 

The Plans of the Directory. — After the treaties which the gen- 
erals of the Convention forced Spain and Prussia to sign, Austria 
and England were the only formidable powers that persisted in 
their hostility to the Republic. The Directors resolved to strike a 
decisive blow at the first of these implacable foes. To carry out 
their design, two large armies, numbering about 70,000 each, were 
mustered upon the Middle Rhine, and entrusted to the command 
of the two young and energetic generals Moreau and Jourdan, 
who were to make a direct invasion of Germany. A third army, 
numbering about 36,000 men, was assembled in the neighborhood 
of Nice, in South-eastern France, and placed in the hands of 
Napoleon, who was assigned the work of driving the Austrians out 
of Italy. The brilliant achievements of the young Corsican so 
completely eclipsed the operations of the other two commanders, 
that it is his movements alone which we will watch, simply notic- 
ing, at the proper time, the results of the German campaigns of 
Moreau and Jourdan. 

Napoleon's Italian Campaign (1796-179 7). — Straightway up- 
on receiving his command, Napoleon, now in his twenty-seventh 
year, animated by visions of military glory to be gathered on the 
fields of Italy, hastened to join his army at Nice. For the accom- 



NAPOLEON'S ITALIAN CAMPAIGN 

plishment of the conquest of Italy, a formidable undertakinj 

found a force of a little more than 30,000 nan, and these without 
pay, and almost without food and clothes. Napoleoo at once 
aroused all the latent enthusiasm of the discontented soldiers, by 
one of those short, stirring addresses for which he afterwards be- 
came so famous. "Soldiers," said he, "you arc badly fed and 
almost naked. Your country owes you much, but can do little for 
you. Your patience and courage do you honor, but can give you 
neither glory nor profit. I have come to lead you into the most 
fertile fields of the world : there you will find large cities, rich 
provinces, honor, glory, and wealth. Soldiers cf Italy, will you fail 
in courage?" 

Before the mountain roads were yet free from snow, Napoleon 
set his army in motion for the passage of the Genoese or Maritime 
Alps. The Austrian and Piedmontese armies were divided, and 
driven from the slopes and passes; and from the summit of the 
mountains the French soldiers looked down upon the magnificent 
plains of Piedmont. The Carthaginian had been surpassed. 
" Hannibal," exclaimed Napoleon, " crossed the Alps ; as for us, 
we have turned them." 

Now followed a most astonishing series of victories and negotia- 
tions. What genius had accomplished in less than twelve months, 
and what greater things it still proposed to itself, may be learned 
best from Napoleon's address to the army after the fall of Mantua : 
" Soldiers, the capture of Mantua has put an end to the war of 
Italy. You have been victorious in fourteen pitched battles and 
seventy actions; you have taken 100,000 prisoners, 500 field- 
pieces, 2,000 heavy cannon, and four pontoon-trains. The con- 
tributions you have laid on the countries you have conquered have 
fed, maintained, and paid the army ; besides which you have sent 
30,000,000 francs to the minister of finance for the use of the 
public treasury. You have enriched the Museum of Paris with 
three hundred masterpieces of ancient and modern Italy, which it 
had required thirty centuries to produce. You have conquered for 
the Republic the finest countries in Europe. The kings of Sar- 



624 FOURTH PERIOD —ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

dinia and Naples, the Pope, and the Duke of Parma, are separated 
from the coalition. You have expelled the English from Leghorn, 
Genoa, and Corsica. Still higher destinies await you. You will 
prove yourselves worthy of them. Of all the foes who have com- 
bined to stifle our Republic in its birth, the Emperor alone 
remains." 

A few lines in the nature of a running commentary on this 
proclamation will serve to call attention to some of the most 
noticeable features of the campaign, the results of which it sum- 
marizes. 

One of the most noted of the numerous engagements alluded 
to in the address, was the battle of Lodi (May 10, 1796). The 
army of Napoleon in its advance from the foot of the Maritime 
Alps to Mantua, had to cross a large number of streams, which 
run from the Swiss Alps southward to the Po. One of these, the 
Adda, was spanned by a stone bridge at the town of Lodi. This 
structure was defended by a strong force of Austrians. Twenty 
cannon swept it from end to end. It was necessary for the 
French to cross it, and that without delay. In the face of a ter- 
rific fire, Napoleon charged across the bridge, at the head of a 
column of four thousand men. The desperate enterprise was 
successful, and Napoleon, who was the second man over the 
bridge, became from this moment the idol of his soldiers. They 
now began to call him affectionately the "Little Corporal," a 
name suggested by his boyish frame and looks. And while this 
battle revealed the beardless boy to the world as a man of destiny, 
it also revealed him to himself. " It was not till after Lodi," said 
he in after years, " that I was struck with the possibility of becom- 
ing famous. It was then that the first spark of my ambition was 
kindled." 

The contributions in money mentioned as being exacted from 
the different states of Italy were a not unusual expedient of con- 
querors ; but the demand which Napoleon made of these states 
for their chief works of art, was a thing unheard of since the art- 
robberies of the ancient Romans. Napoleon, like the Proconsul 



TREATY OF CAMPO FORMIO. 

Verres, had a taste for art, and all through his career he was con- 
stantly carrying masterpieces from the countries he conquered to 

France, to enrich the museums of the capital. His motives in 

this were both artistic and political. He thought that such 
trophies, while contributing to adorn an empire, also serve to 
inspire national pride and sentiment. 

Among the Italian princes of whom Napoleon demanded works 
of art, as the price of peace, was the Duke of Parma. In the 
list of works he was required to give up was a picture of St. 
Jerome by a celebrated artist. The envoys of the Duke offered 
Napoleon a million francs to redeem this single pie< e. Napoleon 
refused the ransom, and then justified his action to his soldiers as 
follows: "The money we would soon have spent; besides, we 
shall find more of that. But a masterpiece is everlasting ; it will 
adorn our country." 

The higher destinies which the address assures the soldiers are 
yet awaiting them, are the passage of the Alps, and the defeat of 
the Austrians on their own soil. While he had been gaining his 
surprising victories in Italy, Moreau and Jourdan had been meet- 
ing with severe reverses in Germany, their invading columns 
having been forced back upon the Rhine by the Archduke 
Charles. Napoleon, having effected the work assigned to the 
army of Italy, now proposed to climb the Alps, and do the work 
assigned to the double army of the Rhine, but in the accomplish- 
ment of which it had most signally failed. 

Treaty of Campo Formio (1797). — Early in March, 1797, 
while the passes of the Alps were still covered with snow, Napo- 
leon set his army in motion, and, after heavy losses among the 
mountains, — the narrow valleys and upper snow-fields of which 
were stubbornly disputed by the Austrians, — led his soldiers 
down upon the plains of Austria. In a short time his columns 
were within sight of the spires of Vienna. The near approach of 
the French induced the Emperor, Francis II., to listen to pro- 
posals of peace, which Napoleon was led to offer through fear of 
being cut off by uprisings in his rear. An armistice was agreed 



626 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

upon, and a few months afterwards (Oct. 17, 1797) the important 
treaty of Campo Formio was arranged. 

By the terms of this treaty Austria ceded her Belgian provinces 
to the French Republic, surrendered important provinces on the 
west side of the Rhine, and allowed Lombardy and other states of 
Italy to be formed into a commonwealth, upon the model of the 
new French state, to be known as the Cisalpine Republic. 

Against these losses Austria received the Venetian dominions 
(excepting the Ionian Islands), which Napoleon, who arranged the 
terms of the treaty with the bearing and power of a dictator, gave 
to her. His avowed object in doing this was to stir up strife 
among the powers forming the late coalition against France ; for 
he well knew that some of these at least would regard with great 
jealousy the addition of so strong and rich a state as Venetia to 
the dominions of the House of Austria. 

With the treaty arranged, Napoleon was impatient to set out for 
Paris, where a triumph and ovation such as Europe had not seen 
since the days of the old Roman conquerors, awaited him. The 
Italian people generally, save the Venetians, who felt that he had 
selfishly sacrificed them to Austrian tyranny, regretted his departure. 
In his farewell address to the citizens of the new Cisalpine Repub- 
lic, he said : " We have given you liberty ; take care to preserve 
it. . . . Divided and bowed down for ages by tyranny, you could 
not have conquered your liberty ; but in a few years, were you left 
to yourselves, no power on earth will be strong enough to wrest it 
from you. Till then the great nation will protect you against the 
attacks of your neighbors ; its political system will be united to 
yours. I shall leave you in a few days. The orders of my govern- 
ment and an immediate danger to the Cisalpine Republic will 
alone bring me back among you." 

Napoleon now hastened to Paris, carrying the treaty of Campo 
Formio with him. He was received with extraordinary enthusiasm. 
All the capital was in a tremor of excitement. The air was alive 
with shouts of " Long live the Republic ! " " Long live Bona- 
parte ! " A magnificent festival was arranged for the presentation 



NAPOLEON'S CAMPAIGN IN EGYPT. 627 

to the Republic by Napoleon of the treaty he had brought The 
Directors were dressed in the costume of Roman senators. Napo- 
leon appeared in a simple attire, looking like a mere boy among 
his aides-de-camp, who were "nearly bent by the respect which 
they paid him." After a short and characteristic speech, he 
delivered to the Directors the treaty of Campo Formio. 1 he- 
people applauded tumultuously, and the Directors flung themselves 
into the arms of their great general, who, while liberating Italy and 
humiliating the pride of Austria, had carried to the highest possible- 
pitch the fame of the armies of the French Republic. 

Napoleon's Campaign in Egypt (i 798-1 799). — The Directors 
had received Napoleon with apparent enthusiasm and affection ; 
but at this very moment they were disquieted by fears lest the con- 
queror's ambition might lead him to play the part of a second 
Caesar. There were reports whispered about that he was meditat- 
ing the seizure of the government, in order to prevent its falling 
into the hands of the royalists, who were just now displaying great 
activity. The Directors, influenced in part, doubtless, by fear and 
jealousy, resolved to engage Napoleon in an enterprise which 
would take him out of France. This undertaking was an attack 
upon England, which they were then meditating. Bonaparte 
opposed the plan of a direct descent upon the island as impractica- 
ble, declaring that England should be attacked through her Eastern 
possessions. He presented a scheme very characteristic of his 
bold, imaginative genius. This was nothing less than the con<iuest 
and colonization of Egypt, by which means France would be able 
to control the trade of the East, and cut England off from her 
East India possessions. 

The Directors assented to the plan, and with feelings of relief 
saw Napoleon embark from the port of Toulon to carry out the 
enterprise. The expedition consisted of four hundred ships, which 
carried many of the veterans of the Italian campaign. About 
Napoleon were several of his lieutenants, who had already earned 
brilliant reputations, but who were destined to win still wider 
renown as the marshals of the great commander. Attached to the 



62S FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

expedition was also a number of learned men, who were to improve 
the opportunity to investigate the antiquities of Egypt. 

On his way Napoleon seized the island of Malta, and finally, 
having escaped the vigilance of the British fleet that was patrolling 
the Mediterranean, landed in Egypt July i, 1798. The following 
day Alexandria fell into his hands, from which place he advanced 
upon Cairo. When within sight of the Pyramids, the French 
army was checked in its march by a determined stand of the 
renowned Mameluke cavalry. Napoleon animated the spirits of 
his men for the inevitable fight by one of his happiest speeches. 
One of the sentences is memorable: "Soldiers," he exclaimed, 
pointing to the Pyramids, " forty centuries are looking down upon 
you." 

The terrific struggle that followed is known in history as the 
"Battle of the Pyramids." Napoleon gained a victory that 
opened the way for his advance. Cairo was now entered in tri- 
umph, and all Lower Egypt fell into the hands of the French. 

Napoleon had barely made his entrance into Cairo, before the 
startling intelligence was borne to him that his fleet had been de- 
stroyed in the bay of Abukir, at the mouth of the Nile, by the 
English admiral Nelson (Aug. 1, 1798). Being by this disaster 
shut up in Egypt, Napoleon gave himself to composing the affairs 
of the conquered territory, and organizing for it a firm government. 
In the meantime, the savants were exploring the antiquities of the 
country. 

In the spring of 1799, Napoleon led his army into Syria, the 
Porte having joined a new coalition against France. He captured 
Gaza and Jaffa, 1 and finally invested Acre. The Turks were 
assisted in the defense of this place by the distinguished English 
admiral, Sir Sidney Smith. 2 All of Napoleon's attempts to carry 

1 At this place Napoleon shot 1,200 prisoners, for no other reason, it has 
been asserted, than that he did not wish to have the trouble of guarding them. 
It seems quite certain, however, that they were men who, once paroled, had 
again been taken with arms in their hands. 

2 The besieged were further assisted by a Turkish army outside. With 
these the French fought the celebrated Battle of Mount Tabor, in which they 
gained a complete victory. 



NAPOLEON OVERTHROWS THE DIRECTORY. 629 

the place by storm, though seventeen times he threw his assaulting 
columns against its walls, were defeated by the skill and bravery 
of the English commander. "That man Sidney," said Napoleon 
afterwards, "made me miss my destiny." Doubtless Napoleon's 
vision of conquests in the East embraced Persia and India. With 
the ports of Syria secured, he would have imitated Alexander, and 
led his soldiers to the foot of the Himalayas. 

Bitterly disappointed, Napoleon abandoned the siege of Acre, 
and led his army back into Egypt. There his worn and thinned 
ranks were attacked near Abukir by a fresh Turkish army, but the 
genius of Napoleon turned threatened defeat into a brilliant victory. 
The enthusiastic Kleber, one of Napoleon's lieutenants, clasping 
his general in his arms, exclaimed, " Sire, your greatness is like- 
that of the universe." 

Establishment of the Tiberine, the Helvetic, and the Partheno- 
psean Republics. — We must turn now to view affairs in Europe. 
The year 1 798 was a favorable one for the republican cause repre- 
sented by the Revolution. During that year and the opening 
month of the following one, the French set up three new Republics. 
First, they incited an insurrection at Rome, made a prisoner of the 
Pope, and proclaimed the Roman or Tiberine Republic. Then 
they invaded the Swiss cantons and united them into a common- 
wealth under the name of the Helvetic Republic. A little later the 
French troops drove the king of Naples out of his kingdom, and 
transformed that state into the Parthenopaean Republic. Thus 
were three new republics added to the commonwealths which the 
Revolution had already created. 

The Reaction: Napoleon overthrows the Directory (iSth and 
19th Brumaire). — Most of this work was quickly undone. En- 
couraged by the victory of Nelson over the French fleet in the 
battle of the Nile, the leading states of Europe had formed a new 
coalition against the French Republic. Early in 1799 the war 
began, and was waged in almost every part of Europe at the same 
time. The campaign was on the whole extremely disastrous to 
the French. They were driven out of Italy, and were barely able 



630 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

to keep the allies off the soil of France. The Cisalpine, the Tiber- 
ine, and the Parthenopaean Republics were abolished. 

The reverses suffered by the French armies caused the Direc- 
tory to fall into great disfavor. They were charged with having 
through jealousy exiled Napoleon, the only man who could save 
the Republic. Confusion and division prevailed everywhere. The 
royalists had become so strong and bold that there was danger lest 
they should gain control of the government. On the other hand, 
the threats of the Jacobins began to create apprehensions of an- 
other Reign of Terror. 

News of the desperate state of affairs at home reached Napoleon 
just after his victory in Egypt, following his return from Syria. 
He instantly formed a bold resolve. Confiding the command of 
the army in Egypt to Kleber, he set sail for France, disclosing his 
designs in the significant words, " The reign of the lawyers is 
over." 

Napoleon was welcomed in France with the wildest enthusiasm. 
A great majority of the people felt instinctively that the emer- 
gency demanded a dictator. Sieves, one of the leading members 
of the Directory, had already declared that " the nation must have 
a chief." 

A coup d'etat was planned, — one of those peculiar strategic 
movements which the French politicians know so well how to 
arrange. Sieves, Ducos (another member of the Directory), Na- 
poleon, and a large number of the members of the Council of the 
Ancients were concerned in the plot. The Councils were trans- 
ferred to St. Cloud, five miles from the capital, on the ostensible 
ground that the Jacobins were planning an attack upon them ; the 
real purpose, however, being to get them where they could be 
dissolved without a commotion being excited. Paris, meanwhile, 
was strongly garrisoned with troops devoted to Napoleon. 

The Directors concerned in the plot now resigned ; the others 
were placed under arrest. The government was thus disorganized, 
being without a head. Napoleon, hastening to St. Cloud, appeared 
in the chamber of the Council of the Ancients. With much con- 



SECRET OF NAPOLEON'S POWER. 

fusion lie explained to the members his purpose, and was favora- 
bly received. But when, attended by some soldiers, he appi 
in the Council of the Five Hundred, he was met with cries of 
"Down with the Dictator!" "Down with the tyrant!" and was 
actually hustled out of the hall. 

The moment for decisive action had come. Napoleon now- 
ordered a body of grenadiers to clear the chamber. As the sol- 
diers entered the building, the deputies fled from the hall, some in 
their haste escaping through the windows ( Nov. 9, 1 799 |. 

The French Revolution had at last brought forth its Cromwell. 
Napoleon was master of France. The first French Republic was 
at an end, and what is distinctively called the French Revolution 
was over. Now commences the history of the Consulate and the 
First Empire, — the story of that surprising career, the sun of 
which rose so brightly at Austerlitz and set forever at Waterloo. 

Secret of Napoleon's Power. — Napoleon Bonaparte, as has 
been seen, first represented the Revolution, then betrayed it; 
became, as we have intimated, its Cromwell, and upon its ruins 
erected a military despotism. If we ask, How was he able to do 
this? the answer is, By the prestige of success and genius. He 
had stood with the Republican armies of France on the summit 
of the Alps, and exclaimed, " Hannibal is surpassed ! " He had 
led these same Republican soldiers to victory beneath the pyra- 
mids, with the stirring words, " Forty centuries look down upon 
you." Not only his enthusiastic Kleber, but all France had em- 
braced him with the exclamation, " Sire, your greatness is like that 
of the universe ! " 

Having won such a place in the affections of the French people, 
having gained such an ascendency over their imagination, it was 
safe to utter, and easy to make good, the threat, " The reign of 
the lawyers is over." 



632 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE: FRANCE SINCE 
THE SECOND RESTORATION. 

I. The Consulate and the Empire (i 799-1815). 

The Veiled Military Despotism. — After the overthrow of the 
Directorial government, a new constitution — the fourth since the 
year 1789 — was prepared, and having been submitted to the 
approval of the people, was heartily endorsed. This new instru- 
ment vested the executive power in three consuls, elected for a 
term of ten years, the first of whom really exercised all the author- 
ity of the Board, the remaining two members being simply his 
counselors. Napoleon, of course, became the First Consul. 

The other functions of the government were carried on by a 
Council of State, a Tribunate, a Legislature, and a Senate. But 
the members of all these bodies were appointed either directly or 
indirectly by the consuls, so that the entire government was actu- 
ally in their hands, or, rather, in the hands of the First Consul. 

The object of the coup d'&tat of the eighteenth and nineteenth 
Brumaire was to substitute a strong centralized authority for the 
feeble Directorial government, and certainly that object had now 
been secured. France was still called a republic, but it was such 
a republic as Rome was under Julius Caesar or Augustus. The 
republican names and forms merely veiled a government as abso- 
lute and personal as that of Louis XIV., — in a word, a military 
despotism. 

Wars of the First Consul. — Napoleon now took up his resi- 



WARS OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 633 

dence in the palace of the Tuileries, gathering about him so bril- 
liant a throng of ladies and courtiers as to revive memories of the 
magnificent court of the Bourbons at Versailles. Hut he by no 

means gave himself up to social dissipations. With astonishing 
energy he set about the work of reorganizing the political, finan- 
cial, and military affairs of the Republic. He well knew that 
France's greatest need was peace, in order that she might have 
opportunity to recuperate her wasted energies ; and doubtless he 
was sincerely desirous of avoiding hostilities with the surrounding 
powers. But neither Austria nor England would acknowledge the 
government of the First Consul as legitimate. In their view he 
was simply an upstart, a fortunate usurper. The throne of France 
belonged, by virtue of divine right, to the House of Bourbon. 

Napoleon mustered his soldiers. His plan was to deal Austria, 
his worst continental enemy, a double blow. A large arm) was 
collected on the Rhine, for an invasion of Germany. This was 
entrusted to Moreau. Another, intended to operate against the 
Austrians in Italy, was gathered at the foot of the Alps. Napo- 
leon himself assumed command of this latter force. 

In the spring of the year 1800 Napoleon made his memorable 
passage of the Alps, and astonished the Austrian generals by sud- 
denly appearing, with an army of 40,000 men, on the plains of 
Italy. Upon the renowned field of Marengo the Austrian army, 
which outnumbered that of the French three to one, was com- 
pletely overwhelmed, and Italy lay for a second time at the feet 
of Napoleon (June 14, 1S00). 

But at the moment Italy was regained, Egypt was lost. ( )n the 
very day of the battle of Marengo, Kleber, whom Napoleon had 
left in charge of the army in Egypt, was assassinated by a Turkish 
fanatic, and shortly aftewards the entire French force was obliged 
to surrender to the English. 

The French reverses in Egypt, however, were soon made up by 
fresh victories in Europe. A few months after the battle of 
Marengo, Moreau gained a decisive victory over the Austrians at 
Hohenlinden, which opened the way to Vienna. The Emperor 



634 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Francis II. was now constrained to sign a treaty of peace at Luneville, 
in which he allowed the Rhine to be made the eastern frontier 
of France (February, 1801). The Emperor also recognized the 
Cisalpine, Ligurian, Helvetian, and Batavian Republics. The 
following year England was also glad to sign a peace at Amiens 
(March, 1802). 

His Works of Peace : the Code Napoleon. — Napoleon having 
wrung from both England and Austria an acknowledgment of his 
government, he was now free to devote his amazing energies to 
the reform and improvement of the internal affairs of France. So 
at this time were begun by him those great works of various char- 
acter which were continued through all the fifteen years of his 
supremacy. 

Napoleon's remarkable genius seemed to unite the diverse abil- 
ities of the greatest of Rome's commanders and emperors. With 
the practical genius of a Julius Caesar he constructed roads, erected 
bridges, dug canals, established arsenals, and improved the ports 
of the country. His great military road over the Alps by the 
Simplon Pass eclipses in bold engineering the most difficult of the 
Roman roads. 

With the military ambition of a Trajan, he possessed a Hadrian's 
passion for building, and adorned Paris and the other chief cities 
of France with cathedrals, churches, fountains, and memorial 
monuments of every description. Many of these works of the 
First Consul are. the pride of France at the present day. 

Like a second Justinian, he caused the laws of France to be 
revised, condensed, and harmonized, producing the celebrated 
Code Napoleon, a work that is not unworthy of comparison with 
the Corpus Juris CivilisofXhe Eastern emperor. The influence 
of this Code upon the development of Liberalism in Western 
Europe is simply incalculable. It secured the work of the 
Revolution. It swept away the unequal, iniquitous, oppressive 
customs, regulations, decrees, and laws that were an inheritance 
from the feudal ages. It recognized the equality in the eye of the 
law of noble and peasant. " It is to-day the frame-work of law 



PLOTS AGAINST HIS LIFE. 

in France, Holland, Belgium, Western Germany, Switzerland, and 

Italy. In France it repealed a chaos of laws and decrees and 
welded the old legislation which was worth retaining with the Dew 
improvements of the revolutionary epoch." 1 Had NapoleoD 
done nothing else save to give this Code to Europe, he would 
have conferred an inestimable benefit upon mankind. 

In imitation of Augustus he encouraged men of letters and 
science, and attached many to his person and government by a 
royal liberality in the bestowal of titles and honors. He estab- 
lished schools and colleges, and endowed libraries, museums, and 
art galleries. He instituted what was called the Legion of Honor. 
to take the place of the feudal orders which the Revolution had 
swept away, and restored titles of distinction, thus creating a sort 
of new aristocracy. Agriculture, manufactures, and all the indus- 
trial arts also received a share of his fostering attention. 

Napoleon's capacity for work was simply enormous. I lis mind 
acted with almost preternatural energy and quickness. Four or 
five hours a day sufficed him for sleep : thus he was able to gain 
time for the accomplishment of labors so varied and prodigious. 

Napoleon made Consul for Life (1802). — As a reward for his 
vast services to France, and also in order that his magnificent 
schemes of reform and improvement might be pursued without 
fear of interruption, Napoleon was now, by a vote of the people. 
made Consul for Life, with the right to name his successor (Au- 
gust, 1802). Thus he moved a step nearer the coveted dignity of 
the Imperial title. 

Plots against his Life. — The year following the conferrin. 
these new powers and dignities upon Napoleon, a plot was laid for 
his assassination, in which three of his generals, Cadondal, 
Pichegru, and Moreau, were implicated. It seems also that 
members of the English government abetted the conspiracy. The 
plot was discovered, and the chiefs concerned in it were executed 
or banished. The Duke of Enghien, the last prince of the House 
of Conde, in whose interest it was suspected the conspiracy was 
1 Ropes, The First Napoleon, p. 91. 



636 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

laid, was seized at Ettenheim, carried to Vincennes, and there 
shot, virtually without trial. No act of Napoleon has been more 
severely censured than this, for the young prince was very gen- 
erally regarded as innocent of any participation in the plot. 

Napoleon proclaimed Emperor (1804). — The above con- 
spiracy, and the increased activity of the enemies of the First 
Consul, caused the French people to resolve to increase his power, 
and secure his safety and the stability of his government, by plac- 
ing him upon a throne. Napoleon, while seeming to resign him- 
self to the popular movement, really incited and directed it. A 
decree conferring upon him the title of Emperor having been 
submitted to the people for approval, it was ratified by an almost 
unanimous vote, less than three thousand persons opposing the 
measure. 1 

The coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre Dame, on 
the 2d of December, 1804; the Pope, Pius VII., having been 
invited from Rome to take part in the ceremonies. The presence 
of the Pope was desired by Napoleon, because it was his design 
to have himself regarded not as the successor of the Bourbons, 
but as the successor of Charlemagne and the Caesars, and it had 
always been thought necessary, by many at least, that the candi- 
date for the Imperial dignity should be consecrated to his office 
by the Roman Pontiff. The Pope poured upon the head of the 
kneeling Emperor the holy oil, and invested him with the Impe- 
rial sceptre ; but when he would have placed the crown upon his 
head, Napoleon checked him, and taking the diadem from the 
Pope crowned himself with his own hands. This was to symbol- 
ize that the temporal power was paramount to the spiritual. 

Surrounding Republics changed into Kingdoms. — Thus was 
the First French Republic metamorphosed into an unveiled 
Empire. We may be sure that the cluster of republics which 
during the Revolution sprang up around the great original, will 
speedily undergo a like transformation ; for Napoleon was right 
when he said that a revolution in France is sure to be followed by 

1 The actual figures were 3,572,329 affirmative and 2,569 negative votes. 



THE WARS OF NAPOLEON, 

a revolution throughout Europe. As France, a republic, would 
make all states republics, so France, a monarchy, would make all 
nations monarchies. Within five years from the time- that the 
government of France assumed an imperial form, all the surround- 
ing republics raised up by the revolutionary ideas and armies of 
France, had been transformed into monarchies dependent upon 
France, or had become a component part of the Fren< h Empire. 
Thus the Cisalpine or Italian Republic was changed into a King- 
dom, and Napoleon, crowning himself at Milan with the iron 
crown of the Lombards, assumed the government of the state, 
with the title of King of Italy (May 26, 1805). The Ligurian 
Republic, embracing Genoa and a portion of Sardinia, was made 
a part of France ; while the Batavian Republic was changed into 
the Kingdom of Holland, and given by Napoleon to his brother 
Louis (June, 1806). Thus was the political work of the Revolu- 
tion undone. Political liberty was taken away ; the people were 
not yet ready for self-government. Equality was left. vm * 

The Wars of Napoleon. — It will not be supposed that the 
powers of Europe were looking quietly on while France was thus 
metamorphosing herself and all the neighboring countries. The 
colossal power which the soldier of fortune was building up was 
a menace to all Europe. The Empire was more dreaded than the 
Republic, because it was a military despotism, and as such an 
instrument of irresistible power in the hands of a man of such 
genius and resources as Napoleon. Coalition after coalition, 
always headed by England, — who had sworn a Punic hatred to 
the Napoleonic Empire, — was formed by the monarchies of 
Europe against the "usurper," with the object of pressing Fran* e 
back within her original boundaries and setting up again the sub- 
verted throne of the Bourbons. 

From the coronation of Napoleon in 1804 until his final down- 
fall in 1815, the tremendous struggle went on almost without inter- 
mission. It was the war of the giants. Millions of men w 
mustered under the standard of France and the opposing ensigns 
of the allied monarchies. Europe was shaken from end to end 



63S FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

with such armies as the world had not seen since the days of 
Xerxes. Napoleon, whose hands were upheld by a score of dis- 
tinguished marshals, performed the miracles of genius. His bril- 
liant achievements still dazzle, while they amaze, the world. 

To relate in detail the campaigns of Napoleon from Austerlitz 
to Waterloo would require the space of volumes. We shall simply 
indicate in a few brief paragraphs the successive steps by which 
he mounted to the highest pitch of power and fame, and then 
trace hurriedly the decline and fall of his astonishing fortunes. 

Austerlitz (1805) : End of the Holy Eoman Empire (1806). — 
The year following his coronation, Napoleon made a gigantic effort 
to break the coalition which England, Russia, Austria, and Sweden 
had formed against him. He massed an immense army at Bou- 
logne, on the Channel, preparatory to an invasion of England ; 
but the failure of his fleet to carry out its part of the plan, and 
intelligence of the advance of the Austrians and Russians towards 
the Rhenish frontier, caused him suddenly to transfer his troops 
to the opposite side of France. 

Without waiting for the attack of the allies Napoleon flung his 
Grand Army, as it was called, across the Rhine, defeated the 
Austrians in the battle of Ulm, and marched in triumph through 
Vienna to the field of Austerlitz beyond, where he gained one of 
his most memorable victories over the combined armies of Austria 
and Russia, numbering more than 100,000 men (Dec. 2, 1805). 

This battle, " the masterpiece of Napoleon's tactics," changed 
completely the map of Europe. Austria was forced to give up 
Venetia and other provinces about the head of the Adriatic, this 
territory being now added to the kingdom of Italy. Sixteen of 
the German states, declaring themselves independent of the Em- 
pire, were formed into a league, called the Confederation of the 
Rhine, with Napoleon as Protector. Furthermore, the Emperor 
Francis II. was obliged to surrender the crown of the Holy Roman 
Empire, and hereafter to content himself with the title of Emperor 
of Austria. 

Thus did the Holy Roman Empire of the west come to an end 



JENA AND AUERSTADT. 

(1806), after having maintained an existence, since its revival 
under Charlemagne, of almost exactly one thousand years. Reck- 
oning from its establishment by Caesar Augustus, it had lasted 1836 
years. The Kingdom of Germany, which was created by the par- 
tition of the Empire of Charlemagne, now also passed out of exis- 
tence, even in name. 

Trafalgar (Oct. 21, 1805). — Napoleon's brilliant victories in 
Germany were clouded by an irretrievable disaster to his fleet, 
which occurred only two days after the engagement at Qlm. Lord 
Nelson having met, near Cape Trafalgar on the coast of Spain, the 
combined French and Spanish fleets, — Spain had become the ally 
of Napoleon, — almost completely destroyed the combined arma- 
ments. The gallant English admiral fell at the moment of victory. 
"Thank God, I have done my duty," were his last words. 

This decisive battle gave England the control of the sea, and 
relieved her from all danger of a French invasion. Even the " wet 
ditch," as Napoleon was wont contemptuously to call the English 
Channel, was henceforth an impassable gulf to his ambition. He 
might rule the continent, but the sovereignty of the ocean and its 
islands was denied him. 

Jena and Auerstadt (1806). — Prussia was the state next after 
Austria to feel the weight of Napoleon's power. Goaded by insult, 
the Prussian king, Frederick William III., very imprudently threw 
down the gauntlet to the French emperor. Moving with his usual 
swiftness, Napoleon overwhelmed the armies of Frederick in the 
battles of Jena and Auerstadt, which were both fought upon the 
same day (Oct. 14, 1806). All Prussia was now trampled down 
by the French armies, which entered in triumph the capital, Ber- 
lin. Thus the great military power consolidated by the genius of 
Frederick the Great, was crushed and almost annihilated. What 
had proved too great an undertaking for the combined powers of 
Europe during the Seven Years' War, Napoleon had effected in 
less than a month. The sword of the great Frederick, with many 
treasures stolen from the museums and art galleries of Berlin, were 
carried as trophies to Paris. 



640 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Eylau and Friedland (1807). — The year following his victo- 
ries over the Prussians Napoleon led his Grand Army against the 
forces of the Czar, Alexander I., who had entered Prussia with aid 
for King Frederick. A fierce but indecisive battle at Eylau was 
followed, a little later in the same season, by the battle of Fried- 
land, in which the Russians were completely overwhelmed (June 
14, 1807). The Czar was forced to sue for peace. Napoleon 
arranged a series of meetings with him on a gayly decorated raft, 
moored midway in the Niemen, the frontier river of Russia. 

Alexander seems to have been quite fascinated by the genius 
and address of his conqueror, who, on this occasion, played the 
part of a Black Prince with admirable tact and advantage. The 
outcome of the conferences was the Treaty of Tilsit, soon after 
signed, and a strange and romantic friendship and alliance between 
the French Emperor and the Czar. 

By the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit Prussia was stripped of more 
than half of her former dominions, a part of which was made into 
a new state, called the Kingdom of Westphalia, with Napoleon's 
brother, Jerome, as its king, and added to the Confederation of 
the Rhine ; while Prussian Poland, reorganized and clumsily chris- 
tened the " Grand Duchy of Warsaw," was given to Saxony. What 
was left of Prussia became virtually a dependency of the French 
Empire. 

The Continental System : the Berlin and Milan Decrees. — 
While Napoleon was carrying on his campaigns against Prussia 
and Russia, he was all the time meditating vengeance upon Eng- 
land, his most uncompromising foe, and the leader or instigator of 
the coalitions which were constantly being formed for the over- 
throw of his power. We have seen how the destruction of his fleet 
at Trafalgar dashed all his hopes of ever making a descent upon 
the British shores. Unable to reach his enemy directly with his 
arms, he resolved to strike her through her commerce. By two 
celebrated imperial edicts, called from the cities whence they were 
issued the Berlin and Milan decrees, he closed all the ports of the 
continent against English ships, and forbade any of the European 



BEGINNING OF THE PENINSULAR WARS. 

nations from holding any intercourse with Great Britain, all of 
whose ports he declared in a state of blockade. 

So completely was Europe under the domination of Napoleon, 
that England's trade was by these measures very seriously crippled. 
and great loss and suffering were inflicted upon her industrial classes. 
We shall have occasion a little later to speak of the disastrous 
effects of the system upon the French Empire itself. 

Beginning of the Peninsular Wars (1808). — One of the first 
consequences of Napoleon's " continental policy" was to bring 
him into conflict with Portugal. The prince regent of that country 
presuming to open its ports to English ships, Napoleon at once 
deposed him, and sent one of his marshals to take possession of 
the kingdom. The entire royal family, accompanied by many of 
the nobility, fled to Brazil, and made that country the seat of an 
empire which has endured to the present day. 

Having thus gained a foothold in the Peninsula, Napoleon now 
resolved to possess himself of the whole of it. Insolently interfer- 
ing in the affairs of Spain, — the government of which, it must be 
confessed, was in a very distracted state, — he forced the weak- 
minded Bourbon king to resign to him, as "his dearly beloved 
friend and ally," his crown, which he bestowed at once upon his 
brother, Joseph Bonaparte (1808). The throne of Naples, which 
Joseph had been occupying, 1 was transferred to Murat, Napo- 
leon's brother-in-law. Thus did this audacious man make and 
unmake kings, and give away thrones and kingdoms. 

But the high-spirited Spaniards were not the people to submit 
tamely to such an indignity. The entire nation, from the Pyrenees 
to the Straits of Gibraltar, flew to arms. Portugal also arose, and 
England sent to her aid a force under Sir Arthur Wellesley, 
afterwards Duke of Wellington, and the hero of Waterloo. The 
French were soon driven out of Portugal, and pushed beyond the 
Ebro in Spain. Joseph fled in dismay from his throne, and 
Napoleon found it necessary to take the field himself, in order to 
restore the prestige of the French arms. lie entered the Penin- 
1 Napoleon dethroned the Bourbons in Naples in 1S05. 



642 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

sula at the head of an army of 80,000 men, and scattering the 
Spaniards wherever he met them, entered Madrid in triumph, and 
reseated his brother upon the Spanish throne. 

Threatening tidings from another quarter of Europe now caused 
Napoleon to hasten back to Paris. 

Second Campaign against Austria (1809). — Taking advantage 
of Napoleon's troubles in the Peninsula, Francis I. of Austria, 
who had been watching for an opportunity to retrieve the disaster 
of Austerlitz, gathered an army of half a million of men, and de- 
clared war against the French Emperor. But Austria was fated to 
suffer even a deeper humiliation than she had already endured. 
Napoleon swept across the Danube, and at the end of a short cam- 
paign, the most noted battles of which were those of Eckmiihl and 
Wagram, Austria was again at his feet, and a second time he 
entered Vienna in triumph. Austria was now still farther dismem- 
bered, large tracts of her possessions being ceded directly to 
Napoleon or given to the various neighboring states (1809). 

The Papal States and Holland joined to the French Empire. — 
That Napoleon cared but little for the thunders of the Church is 
shown by his treatment of the Pope. Pius VII. opposing his con- 
tinental system, the Emperor incorporated the Papal States with 
the French Empire (1809). The Pope thereupon excommuni- 
cated Napoleon, who straightway arrested the Pontiff, and dragged 
him over the Alps into France. He held him in captivity for four 
years, moving him from place to place, and part of the time limit- 
ing him to prison fare. 

The year following the annexation of the Papal States to the 
French Empire, Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland, who disap- 
proved of his brother's continental system, which was ruining the 
trade of the Dutch, abdicated the crown. Thereupon Napoleon 
incorporated Holland with France, on the ground that it was 
simply " the sediment of the French rivers." 
L Napoleon's Second Marriage (18 10). — The year following his 
triumph over Francis I. of Austria, Napoleon divorced his wife 
Josephine, in order to form a new alliance, with Maria Louisa, 



ELEMENTS OF WEAKNESS IN THE EMPIRE. 643 

Archduchess of Austria. The fond and faithful Josephine bowed 
meekly to the will of her lord, and went into sorrowful exile from 
his palace. Napoleon's object in this matter was to cover the 
reproach of his own plebeian birth, by an alliance with one of the 
ancient royal families of Europe, and to secure the perpetuity of 
his government by leaving an heir who might be the inheritor of 
his throne and fortunes. His hope seemed realized when, the 
year following his marriage with the Archduchess, a son was born 
to them, who was given the title of " King of Rome." 

Napoleon at the Summit of his Power (181 1 ). — Napoleon was 
now at the height of his marvelous fortunes. Marengo, Austerlitz, 
Jena, Friedland, and Wagram were the successive steps by which he 
had mounted to the most dizzy heights of military power and glory. 
This man of destiny was now the arbiter of the destinies of Europe. 
The empire which he had built up stretched from the Baltic to 
Southern Italy, embracing France proper, Belgium, Holland, 
Northwestern Germany, Italy west of the Apennines as far south 
as Naples, besides large possessions about the head of the Adriatic. 
On all sides were allied, vassal, or dependent states. Several of 
the ancient thrones of Europe were occupied by Napoleon's rela- 
tives or favorite marshals. He himself was head of the Kingdom 
of Italy, and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. Austria 
and Prussia were completely subject to his will. Russia and 
Denmark were his allies. 

Such were the relations of the once great powers and indepen- 
dent states of Europe to this soldier of fortune. Not since the 
time of the Caesars or of Charlemagne had one man's will swayed 
so much of the world. 

Elements of Weakness in the Empire. — But splendid and 
imposing as at this moment appeared the external affairs of 
Napoleon* the sun of his fortunes, which had risen so brightly at 
Austerlitz, had already passed its meridian. There were many 
things just now contributing to the weakness of the French Empire 
and foreboding its speedy dissolution. Founded and upheld by 
the genius of Napoleon, it depended solely upon the life and for- 



644 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

tunes of this single man. The diverse elements it embraced were 
as yet so loosely joined that there could be no hope or possibility 
of its surviving either the misfortune or death of its founder. 

Again, Napoleon's continental system, through the suffering and 
loss it inflicted upon all the maritime countries of Europe, had 
caused murmurs of discontent all around the circumference of the 
continent. This ruinous policy had also involved the French 
Emperor in a terribly wasteful war with Spain, which country was 
destined — more truly than Italy, of which the expression was 
first used — to become "the grave of the French." Napoleon after 
his downfall himself admitted that his passage of the Pyrenees was 
the fatal misstep in his career. 

Furthermore, the conscriptions of the Emperor had drained 
France of men, and her armies were now recruited by mere boys, 
who were utterly unfit to bear the burden and fatigue of Napo- 
leon's rapid campaigns. The heavy taxes, also, which were 
necessary to meet the expenses of Napoleon's wars, and to carry 
on the splendid public works upon which he was constantly 
engaged, produced great suffering and discontent throughout the 
Empire. And the crowd of deposed princes and dispossessed 
aristocrats in those states where Napoleon had promulgated his 
new code of equal rights, were naturally restless and resentful : 
they were " subjected but indignant," and were ever watchful for 
an opportunity to recover their ancient power and privileges. 
Even the large class in the surrounding countries that at first 
welcomed Napoleon as the representative of the French ideas of 
equality and liberty, and applauded while he overturned ancient 
thrones and aristocracies, which, like the monarchy and feudal 
nobility in France swept away by the Revolution, had become 
unbearably proud, corrupt, and oppressive, — even these early 
adherents had been turned into bitter enemies through Napoleon's 
adoption of imperial manners, and especially by his setting aside 
his first wife, Josephine, in order that he might ally himself to one 
of the old royal houses of Europe, which act was looked upon as 
a betrayal of the cause of the people. 



'/'I IK INVASION OF RUSSIA. 645 

Nothing save the prestige of Napoleon's name and the dread of 
his vengeance keeps his enemies at bay. Let the lion be wounded, 
and a hundred enemies will spring upon him from every side. 

The Invasion of Russia (1812-1813). — The signal for the 
uprising of Europe was the terrible misfortune which befell Napo- 
leon in his invasion of Russia. The Czar having cast aside the 
old ties of alliance and friendship, and entered a coalition against 
France, Napoleon crossed the frontiers of Russia, at the head of 
what was proudly called the ('.rand Army, numbering more than 
half a million of men. The boundaries of that country had never 
been crossed by such an army since Darius I. led his immense 
hosts across the Danube twenty-four centuries before. 1 

The Russians threw themselves across the path of the invaders 
at Borodino, but their lines were swept back by the strong col- 
umns of the Grand Army, although the victory cost the French 
dear. Following closely the retreating enemy, the French pushed 
on towards the ancient Russian capital Moscow. This city Napo- 
leon had thought would supply food for his army, and shelter from 
the severity of the northern winter, which was now approaching. 
But to his astonishment he found the city deserted by its inhabi- 
tants ; and scarcely had he established himself in the empty palace 
of the Czar (the Kremlin), before the city, probably fired by 
persons whom the Russians had left behind for this purpose, burst 
into flames in a hundred places at once. After waiting about the 
ruins until the middle of October, in hopes that the Czar would 
accept proposals of peace, Napoleon was forced to give the 
command for the return of the army to France. 

lu The French army of invasion included Frenchmen, Italians, Swiss, 
Dutch, Poles, and contingents from all the German princes uf the Confederacy 
of the Rhine; in fact, the smaller part of the army was French."— V 
Epitome of Universal History, p. 474. 

"It was indeed the ' army of twenty nations,' as it is still called by the 
Russian people. Napoleon swept all the races of the West against the 
by a movement similar to that of the great invasions, ami Russia seemed 
likely to be overwhelmed by a human avalanche."— RAMBAUD, Hist 
Russia, Vol II. p. 324. 



646 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The retreat was attended with incredible sufferings and horrors. 
The Russian winter setting in earlier than usual and with terrible 
severity, thousands of the French soldiers were frozen to death, 
and falling upon the snow, traced with a long black line the trail 
of the retreating army. The spot of each bivouac was marked by 
the circles of dead around the watch-fires. Thousands more were 
slain by the wild Cossacks, who surrounded the retreating columns 
and harassed them day and night. The passage of the river 
Beresina was attended with appalling losses. 

Soon after the passage of this stream, Napoleon, conscious that 
the fate of his empire depended upon his presence in Paris, left 
the remnant of the army in charge of his marshals, and hurried by 
post to his capital. Marshal Ney, the " bravest of the brave," 
performed miracles in covering the retreat of the broken and 
dispirited columns. Almost single-handed he beat back again and 
again the pursuing bands of the enemy. He was the last man, it 
is said, to cross the Niemen. His face was so haggard from care 
and so begrimed with powder, that no one recognized him. Being 
asked who he was, he replied, " I am the rear guard of the Grand 
Army." 

The loss by death of the French and their allies in this disas- 
trous campaign is reckoned at about 300,000 men, 1 while that of 
the Russians is estimated to have been almost as large. 

"The Battle of the Nations" (Leipsic, 1813). — Napoleon's 
fortunes were buried with his Grand Army in the snows of Russia. 
His woful losses emboldened the surrounding powers to think that 
now they could crush him. A sixth coalition was formed, embrac- 
ing Russia, Prussia, England, and Sweden. Napoleon made gi- 
gantic efforts to prepare France for the struggle. By the spring of 
1813 he was at the head of a new army, numbering over 300,000 
men, or boys we should rather say, so extremely young were a 
large number of the fresh recruits. 

Falling upon the allied armies of the Russians and Prussians, 

1 The Russians took 100,000 prisoners, and about 100,000 recrossed the 
Niemen. 



THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 647 

first at Lutzen and then at Bautzen, he gained a decisive vi< 

upon both fields. Austria now appeared in the lists, and at 
Leipsic the French were met by the leagued armies of Europe. 
So many were the powers represented upon the renowned field, 
that it is known in history as the " Battle of the Nations." The 
combat lasted three days. Napoleon was defeated, and forced to 
retreat into France. 

The Abdication of Napoleon (1814). — The armies of the 
allies now poured over all the French frontiers. Wellington, hav- 
ing driven Napoleon's marshals from the Iberian Peninsula, was 
already in the South of France; the Russians and Swedes were 
advancing through the Netherlands ; while in the east two strong 
German armies, commanded by Blucher and Schwarzenberg, were 
upon the Rhine. 

Napoleon's tremendous efforts to roll back the tide of invasion 
were all in vain. As the struggle became manifestly hopeless, his 
most trusted officers deserted and betrayed him. Paris surren- 
dered to the allies (March 31, 1814). Napoleon was forced to 
abdicate, and the ancient House of the Bourbons was re-estab- 
lished in the person of a brother of Louis XVI., who took the title 
of Louis XVIII. Napoleon was banished to the little island of 
Elba in the Mediterranean, being permitted to retain his title of 
Emperor, and to keep about him a few hundreds of his old 
guards. But Elba was a very diminutive empire for one to whom 
the half of Europe seemed too small, and we shall not be surprised 
to learn that Napoleon was not content with it. 

The Congress of Vienna (Sept., 1814-June, t S 1 5 ) . — After the 
overthrow of Napoleon, commissioners of the different European 
states met at Vienna to readjust the map of Europe. It w 
great task to harmonize the conflicting claims that camel' 
the convention, and to effect a settlement of the continent that 
should satisfy all parties. At one time war among the allies 
seemed inevitable. But after nearly a year of negotiations and 
debate an agreement respecting the boundaries and relations ot 
the various states was reached. As we shall hereafter, in cornier- 



648 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

tion with the history of the separate countries, have occasion to 
say something respecting the relations of each to the Congress, 
we shall here say but a word regarding the temper of the assembly 
and the general character of its work. 

The Vienna commissioners seemed to have but one thought and 
aim — to put everything back as near as possible in the shape that 
it was in before the Revolution. They had no care for the people ; 
the princes were their only concern. The crowd of thrones that 
Napoleon had overturned were righted, and the old despots were 
invited to remount them. Italy and Germany were divided among 
a horde of petty tyrants. The old iniquitous partition of Poland 
was confirmed. In Spain and Naples the old Bourbon families 
were re-instated, and the former despotisms renewed. In short, 
the clock was set back to the hour when the Bastile was attacked. 
Everything that had happened since was utterly ignored. 

But the Revolution had destroyed privilege as expressed in the 
effete feudal aristocracies of Europe, and impaired beyond resto- 
ration the monstrous doctrine of the divine right of kings. An 
attempt to bring these things back again was an attempt to restore 
life to the dead, — to set up again the fallen Dagon in his place. 

Notwithstanding, the commissioners at Vienna, blind to the 
spirit and tendencies of the times, did set up once more the 
broken idol, — only, however, to see it flung down again by 
the memorable social upheavals of the next half century. The 
kings had had their Congress : the people were to have theirs, 
— in 1820 and '30 and '48. 

The Hundred Days (March 20-June 29, 1815). — The allies 
who placed Louis XVIII. upon the French throne set back the 
boundaries of France as nearly as possible to the lines they occu- 
pied in 1792. In like manner the king himself, seemingly utterly 
oblivious to the spirit and tendencies of the times, as soon as he 
was in possession of the ancient inheritance of his family, began 
to put back everything just as it was before the reforms of the 
Revolution. He always alluded to the year he began to rule as 
the nineteenth of his reign, thus affecting to ignore entirely the 
government of the Republic and Empire. 



THE 11C XI) RED DAYS. 

The result of this reactionary policy was widespread dissatis- 
faction throughout France. Many began to desire the return of 
Napoleon, and the wish was perhaps what gave rise to the report 
which was spread about that he would come back with the spring 
violets. 

In the month of March, 1815, as the commissioners of the 
various powers were sitting at Vienna rearranging the landmarks 
and boundaries obliterated by the French inundation, news was 
brought to them that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was 
in France. At first the members of the Congress were incredu- 
lous, regarding the thing as a jest, and were with difficulty con- 
vinced of the truth of the report. 

Taking advantage of the general dissatisfaction with the rule of 
the restored Bourbons, Napoleon had resolved upon a bold push 
for the recovery of his crown. Landing with a few follow* 
one of the southern ports of France, he aroused all the country 
with one of his stirring addresses, and then immediately pushed 
on towards Paris. Never was the changeable, impulsive character 
of the French people better illustrated than now ; and never was 
better exhibited the wonderful personal magnetism of Napoleon. 
His journey to the capital was one continuous ovation. One 
regiment after another, forgetting their recent oath of loyalty to 
the Bourbons, hastened to join his train. His old generals and 
soldiers embraced him with transports of joy. Marshal Ney, sent 
to arrest the Emperor, whom he had promised to bring to Paris 
in a cage, at the first sight of his old commander threw himself 
into his arms, and pledged him his sword and his life. 

Louis XVIIL, deserted by his army, was left helpless, and. as 
Napoleon approached the gates of Paris, fled from his throne. 
The fickle populace, who only a few months before had cheered 
enthusiastically the entry of the allies into the capital, dow seemed 
delirious with joy over the return of the Emperor. 

Napoleon desired peace with the sovereigns of Europe; but 
they did not think the peace of the continent could be maintained 
so long as he sat upon the French throne. For the seventh and 



650 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

last time the allies leagued their armies to crush the man of 
destiny. A million of men poured over the frontiers of France. 

Hoping to overwhelm the armies of the allies by striking them 
one after another before they had time to unite, Napoleon moved 
swiftly into Belgium with an army of 130,000, in order to crush 
there the English and Prussians. He first fell iri with and defeated 
the Prussian army under Blucher, and then faced the English at 
Waterloo (June 18, 1815). 

The story of Waterloo need not be told, — how all day the 
French broke their columns in vain on the English squares ; how, 
at the critical moment at the close of the day, Blucher with a 
fresh force of 30,000 Prussians turned the tide of battle ; and how 
the famous Old Guard, which knew how to die but not how to 
surrender, made its last charge, and left its hitherto invincible 
squares upon the lost field. 

A second time Napoleon was forced to abdicate, and a second 
time Louis XVIII. was lifted by the allies upon his unstable throne. 
Bonaparte desired to be allowed to retire to America, but his 
enemies believed that his presence there would not be consistent 
with the safety of Europe. Consequently he was banished to the 
island of St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, and there closely 
guarded by the British until his death, in 182 1. 

The story of these last years of Napoleon Bonaparte, as gathered 
from the companions of his exile, is one of the most absorbing 
and pathetic in all history. At the time of his death Napoleon 
was in his fifty-second year. As upon the death of Cromwell, so 
now the elements by their turmoil seemed to signal the departure 
of a mighty spirit ; for, while the man of destiny lay dying, the 
island was swept by a terrific tempest, which caused the little rock 
" to tremble as though shaken by an earthquake." 



L. 



THE REVOLUTION OF 18 651 



II. France since the Second Restoration (i, ). 

Character of the Period. — The history of France since the 
second restoration of the Bourbons may be characterized briefly. 
It has been simply a continuation of the Revolution, of the strug- 
gle between democratic and monarchical tendencies. The aim 
of the Revolution was to abolish privileges and establish rights, — 
to give every man lot and part in shaping the government under 
which he lives. These republican ideas and principles have, <>n 
the whole, notwithstanding repeated reverses, gained ground ; for 
revolutions never move backward. There may be eddies and 
counter-currents in a river, but the steady and powerful sweep of 
the stream is ever onward towards the sea. Not otherwise is it 
with the great political and intellectual movements of History. 

Reign of Louis XVIII. — Profiting by the lessons of The 
Hundred Days, Louis XVIII. ruled after this second restoration 
with reasonable heed to the results and changes effected by the 
Revolution. Giving up his dream of re-establishing the despotism 
of Louis XIV., he reigned in accordance with the provisions of 
the new constitution, which was somewhat like that of England ; 
and France rested quietly under his rule, she seeming, also, to 
have forgotten her dream of a Republic. 

The Revolution of 1830. — But upon the death of Louis in 
1824 and the accession of Charles X., a reactionary policy was 
adopted. The new king seemed utterly incapable of profiting by 
the teachings of the Revolution. His blind, stubborn course gave 
rise to the saying, " A Bourbon learns nothing and forgets noth- 
ing." The result might have been foreseen. The people rose in 
revolt, and by one of those sudden movements for which Paris is 
so noted, the despot was driven into exile, and Louis Philippe, 
Duke of Orleans, was placed on the throne ( 1 830) . 

A new constitution was now given to France, and as Louis 
Philippe had traveled about the world considerably, and had ex- 
perienced various vicissitudes of fortune, — having at one time 



652 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

been obliged to support himself by teaching mathematics in 
Switzerland, — the people regarded him as one of themselves, and 
anticipated much from their " citizen king," and their reformed 
constitution. 

The French "July Revolution," as it is called, lighted the signal 
fires of liberty throughout Europe. In almost every country there 
were uprisings of the Liberals. Existing constitutions were so 
changed as to give the people a larger share in the government ; 
and where there were no constitutions, original charters were 
granted. In some instances, indeed, the uprisings had no other 
result than that of rendering the despotic governments against 
which they were directed more cruel and tyrannical than they were 
before ; yet, on the whole, a decided impulse was given to the 
cause of constitutional, republican government. 1 

Establishment of the Second Republic (1848). — The reign of 
Louis Philippe up to 1848 was very unquiet, yet was not marked 
by any disturbance of great importance. But during all this time 
the ideas of the Revolution were working among the people, and 
the republican party was constantly gaining strength. Finally, in 
1848, some unpopular measures of the government caused an up- 
rising similar to that of 1830. Louis Philippe, under the assumed 
name of Mr. Smith, fled into England. The Second Republic was 
now established, with the poet and historian Lamartine as its 
provisional head. An election being ordered, Louis Napoleon 
Bonaparte, nephew of the great Napoleon, was chosen President 
of the new republic (Dec. 20, 1848). 

The truth of the first Napoleon's declaration, which we have 
before quoted, that a revolution in France is sure to be followed 
by a revolution throughout Europe, was now illustrated anew. 

1 It was at this time that Belgium became an independent state; for upon 
the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815, the Congress of Vienna had 
made the Low Countries into a single kingdom, and given the crown to a 
prince of the House of Orange. The Belgians now arose and declared them- 
selves independent of Holland, adopted a liberal constitution, and elected 
Leopold I., of Saxe-Coburg, as their king (1831). 



THE SECOND EMPIRE. 

Almost every throne upon the continent felt the shock of the 
French Revolution of 1848. The constitutions of many of the 

surrounding states again underwent great changes in the interest 
of the people and of liberty. " It is scarcely an exaggeration to 
say that, during the month of March, 1848, not a single dayp 1 
without a constitution being granted somewhere." France had 
made another of her irresistible invasions of the states of Europe 
, — " an invasion of ideas." 

The Second Empire (1852-1S70). — The life of the Second 
Republic spanned only three years. By almost exactly the same 
steps as those by which his uncle had mounted the French throne, 
Louis Napoleon now also ascended to the imperial dignity, crush- 
ing the Republic as he rose. 

Dissensions having arisen between the President and the 
Legislative Assembly, he suddenly dissolved that body, placed its 
leaders under arrest, and then appealed to the country to endorse 
what he had done. By a most extraordinary vote of 7,437,216 to 
640,737 the nation approved of the President's coup </'<'/<i/, and 
rewarded him for it by electing him President for ten years, which 
was virtually making him dictator. The next year he was made 
Emperor, and took the title of Napoleon III. (1852). 

The important political events of the reign of Napoleon III. 
were the Crimean War (185 3-1 85 6), the Austro-Sardinian War 
(1859), and the Franco-Prussian War (1S70-1871). 

The first and second of these wars need not detain us at this 
time, as we shall speak of them hereafter in connection with 
Russian and Italian affairs. 

The third war was with Prussia. The real causes of this war 
were French jealousy of the growing power of Prussia, and the 
Emperor's anxiety to strengthen his government in the affection^ 
of the French people by reviving the military glory of the reign of 
his great uncle. 1 The pretext upon which the war was actually 
declared was that Prussia was scheming to augment her influence 

1 Lands to the west of the Rhine, once held by France but now in posse>M.m 
of Germany, were to be regained. 



654 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

by allowing a Prussian prince (Leopold of Hohenzollern) to 
become a candidate for the vacant throne of Spain. 

The French armies invaded Germany, but were pushed back by 
the Prussians and their allies, who followed the retreating enemy 
across the frontier, defeated one large French army at Gravelotte 
(Aug. 18, 1870) and imprisoned it in Metz, captured the strong 
fortress of Sedan — making a prisoner here of the Emperor him- 
self 1 — and then advancing upon Paris, forced that city, after an 
investment of a few months, to capitulate (Jan. 28, 1871). 

The most lamentable part of the struggle now began. Outside 
of Paris, at Bordeaux, was a sort of provisional government, 
headed by M. Thiers, which had been organized after the capture 
of the Emperor. With this body the conquerors carried on their 
negotiations for peace. The terms of the treaty were that France 
should surrender to Germany the greater portion of the Rhenish 
provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, pay an indemnity of 5, 000,000,- 
000 francs (about $1,000,000,000), and consent to the occupation 
of certain portions of French territory until the fine was paid. 

The Red Republicans, or Communists, of Paris, indignant at the 
terms of the treaty, shut the gates of the city, and called the 
population to arms, declaring that the capital would never submit 
to see France thus dismembered and humiliated. 

The Germans left to the provisional government the task of 
reducing the insubordinate capital to submission. As the French 
armies were in captivity in Germany, the government was forced 
to wait for them to be sent home. With the regular army upon 
the ground, the Communists were able to hold out but a short 
time. When they saw that they would soon be overpowered, they 
resolved that the capital should perish with them. The Tuileries, 
the Palais Royal, the Hotel de Ville, and many other public build- 
ings were fired, and a second Reign of Terror was set up. Finally, 
the government succeeded in suppressing the Anarchists, and 
order was restored, though only after frightful slaughters in the 
streets and squares of the city (May, 1871). 

1 After the war Louis Napoleon found an asylum in England (at Chisel- 
hurst), where he died January 9, 1873. 



THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 

The Third Republic (1871- ). — The organization of the 
Third Republic was now completed. M. Thiers, the historian, 
was made its first President (Aug. 31, 1 «S 7 1 ) . He was followed 
(May 24, 1873) by Marshal MacMahon, who, resigning in 1 
was succeeded by M. Grevy, the present head of the Republic 
(1885). 



656 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER VII. 

RUSSIA SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Paul I. (i 796-1801) and Napoleon. — Catherine II. of Russia 
was an ardent disciple of the French philosopher Voltaire and the 
Encyclopedists ; but when the Revolution began to reduce to 
practice the theories of these writers, Catherine became frightened, 
caused the bust of Voltaire in her palace to be taken down, and 
set herself in violent opposition to the whole French movement. 

Catherine's son, Paul I., with the sure instinct of a born auto- 
crat, hated the Revolution and all the ideas it represented. But 
when Napoleon came to the head of French affairs and began to 
exhibit his despotic character, Paul was delighted, became his 
most ardent admirer, and proposed to him a scheme for the 
humiliation of England by the conquest of her East Indian posses- 
sions. The plan was a bold one. The attacking forces were to 
march to the Indies by two routes : a Russian army was to move 
through Khiva and Bokhara, and an allied Russian and French 
force to march from the Caspian by the way of Herat and Kanda- 
har. What would have come of the project it is hard to divine, 
had not the whole scheme been suddenly frustrated by the assas- 
sination of the Czar. 

Alexander I. (1801-1825) and the Holy Alliance. — Alexander 
I., the son and successor of Paul L, held, during the greater part 
of his reign, a most commanding position among the rulers of 
Europe. The great defect in his character was inconstancy. At 
first he was the friend of Napoleon, then his enemy, again his 
ardent admirer, and finally the one to call upon the nations of 
Europe to crush him as an outlaw. 



ALEXANDER I. 

This same vacillation characterizes all his acts. During the 
earlier years of his reign he was a zealous advocate of liberal ideas. 

It was due largely to his influence that the French secure 1 a i on 
stitution upon the restoration of the Bourbons. He -ranted the 
Poles a liberal constitution. He freed the serfs in Livonia and 
Courland. He introduced many beneficent reforms into Russia, 
and even encouraged his subjects to hope that the) should have a 
constitution which should give them a part in the government. 

Toward the middle of his reign he became a sort of mystic, and 
upon the downfall of Napoleon, he organized the celebrated union 
known as the Holy Alliance. This was a league embracing as its 
chief members Russia, Austria, and Prussia, the ostensible object 
of which was the maintenance of religion, peace, and order in 
Europe, and the reduction to practice in politics of the maxims 
of Christ. The several sovereigns entering into the union prom- 
ised to be fathers to their people, to rule in love and with refer- 
ence solely to the promotion of the welfare of their subjects, and 
to help one another as brothers to maintain just government and 
prevent wrong. In a solemn address to the world (Sept. 26, 
18 1 5) they announced that they would henceforth rule in exact 
accord with Christian love, regarding themselves as the ''plenipo- 
tentiaries of Heaven." 

All this had a very millennial look. But the "Holy Alliance" 
very soon became practically a league for the maintenance of 
absolute principles of government, in opposition to the liberal 
tendencies of the age. Under the pretext of maintaining religion. 
justice, and order, the sovereigns of the union acted in concert to 
suppress every aspiration among their subjects for political liberty. 

Yet, although such was the final history of the league. Alexande r. 
when he founded it, meant all that he said. But conspiracies 
among his own subjects, the ingratitude of the Poles, and the 
uprisings throughout Europe, all tended to create in him a revul- 
sion of feeling. His disposition underwent a complete change. 
From an ardent apostle of liberal ideas, he was transformed into a 
violent absolutist, and spent all his latter years in aiding the des- 



658 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

potic rulers of Spain, Italy, and Germany to crush every uprising 
among their subjects for political freedom. 

This reactionary policy of Alexander Caused bitter disappoint- 
ment among the Liberals in Russia, the number of whom was large, 
for the Russian armies that helped to crush Napoleon came back 
from the West with many new and liberal ideas awakened by what 
they had seen and heard and experienced. 

The Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829. — In 1825 Alexander 
I. was succeeded by his brother Nicholas I. (1825-1855), "a 
terrible incarnation of autocracy." He carried out the later 
policy of his predecessor, and strove to shut out from his empire all 
the liberalizing influences of Western Europe. 

A war with Persia, which ended in 1828, greatly extended 
Russian influence in the regions of the Caspian. The same year, 
taking advantage of the embarrassment of the Sultan through a 
stubborn insurrection in Greece, 1 Nicholas declared war against 
the Ottoman Porte. The Balkans were quickly passed, and the 
victorious armies of the Czar were in full march upon Constanti- 
nople, when their advance was checked by the jealous interference 
of England and Austria, through whose mediation the war was 
brought to a close by the Peace of Adrianople (1829). Nicholas 
restored all his conquests in Europe, but held some provinces in 
Asia which gave him control of the eastern shore of the Euxine. 
Greece was liberated, and Servia became virtually independent 
of the Sultan. Thus the result of the contest was greatly to dimin- 
ish the strength and influence of Turkey, and correspondingly to 
increase the power and prestige of Russia. 

Revolution in Poland (1 830-1 832). — The Congress of 
Vienna (18 15) re-established Poland as a constitutional kingdom 

1 This Was the struggle known as the " War of Grecian Independence." 
It was characterized by the most frightful barbarities on the part of the Turks. 
Lord Byron enlisted on the side of the Greeks. The result of the war was 
the freeing of Greece from Turkish rule. England, France, and Russia be- 
came the guardians of the little state, the crown of which was given to Prince 
Otto of Bavaria (Otto I., 18.32-1862). 



RUSSIA AND 77 IE REVOLUTIONS OF [848. 

dependent upon Russia in some such way as Ireland \\ 
to England previous to the Union in [801. Under their constitu- 
tion the Poles could manage their own finances and administer 
their local affairs ; yet the Polish patriots were still impatient of 
the subjection of their country to the authority of the Czar, for 
memories of the prouder days of Poland's power and independ- 
ence were kept fresh among them. Moreover, the agreement for 
local self-government was not faithfully kept by Russia. 

The revolutionary movements of the year 1830 sent a wave of 
hope through Poland, and the people arose, set up a provisional 
government, and drove out the Russian garrisons. But the armies 
of the Czar quickly poured over the frontiers of the revolted state, 
and before the close of the year 1S31 the Polish patriots were 
once more under the foot of their Russian master. 

It was a hard fate that awaited the unhappy nation. Their con- 
stitution was taken away, and Poland was made a province of the 
Russian Empire (1832). The Polish regiments, instead of being 
allowed to form an independent army as hitherto, were scattered 
in widely separated provinces. Everything in the nature of a 
weapon was taken away from the people, the peasant being deprived 
even of his scythe. Multitudes were banished to Siberia, while 
thousands more expatriated themselves, seeking an asylum in 
England, America, and other countries. Nicholas even attempted 
to root out the Polish language, the Russian being introduced into 
all the schools and made a requisite for holding any office whatever. 
Of all the peoples that rose for freedom in 1830 none suffered 
so cruel and complete an extinguishment of their hopes as did the 
patriot Poles. 

Russia and the Revolutions of 1848. — Russia's chief part in 
the affairs of the revolutionary years of 1848 and [849 was to help 
Austria suppress the liberal movement in her dominions. 

The July Revolution in Paris sent an electric thrill throughout 
Europe. Poland "quivered with excitement," but dared not and 
could not rise. Hungary, however, rose against Austria, and under 
the lead of the illustrious patriot Louis Kossuth, made a noble 



660 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

fight for freedom. The Emperor of Austria asked and secured aid 
of Czar Nicholas. An army of 190,000 Russians and 300,000 Aus- 
trians crushed the uprising. Hungary was made a second Poland. 
~ The Crimean War (1853-1856). — A celebrated phrase used 
by the Czar Nicholas in conversation with Sir George Hamilton Sey- 
mour, the English minister at St. Petersburg, throws a good deal of 
light upon the circumstances that led to the Crimean War. " We 
have on our hands," said the Czar, " a sick man — a very sick man ; 
I tell you frankly, it would be a great misfortune if he should give 
us the slip some of these days, especially if it happened before all 
the necessary arrangements were made." 1 

Nicholas had cultivated friendly relations with the English gov- 
ernment, and he now proposed that England and Russia, as the 
parties most directly interested, should divide the estate of the 
" sick man," by which phrase Turkey of course was meant. Eng- 
land was to be allowed to take Egypt and Crete, while the Turkish 
provinces in Europe were to be taken under the protection of the 
Czar, which meant of course the complete absorption, in due time, 
of all South-eastern Europe into the Russian Empire. Nicholas 
indeed disclaimed any intention of appropriating Constantinople, 
but it was very evident that the Czar would not long be content to 
leave in other hands that "key to the Russian house." 

A pretense for hastening the dissolution of the sick man was not 
long wanting. A quarrel between the Greek and Latin Christians 
at Jerusalem about the holy places was made the ground by Nich- 
olas for demanding of the Sultan the admission and recognition of 
a Russian protectorate over all Greek Christians in the Ottoman 
dominions, a guardianship which the Russians insisted was created 
by a celebrated clause of the Treaty of Kainardji, made between 
the Sublime Porte and Catherine the Great in 1774. 

As if on purpose to render sure the rejection of the Russian 
proposition, the embassador of the Czar, Prince Menshikof, — of 
whom the Emperor Napoleon's commissioner to King William of 
Prussia in 1870 would seem to have taken lessons in court eti- 

1 Rambaud's History of Russia, Vol. III. p. 88. 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 661 

quette, — presented himself before the Turkish cabinet in a dress 
so uncourtly and careless as to show intended insult. The propo- 
sals he bore respecting the Russian protectorate were of course 
promptly rejected, and Nicholas prepared for war. 

As the Czar held himself out as the champion of the Check 
Christian subjects of the Porte, — of whom there were at this time 
probably over 10,000,000, — by which pretension he hoped to 
arouse the entire Christian population of the Ottoman Empire to 
what might be regarded as a crusade of the Cross against the 
Crescent, the Sultan, in order that this portion of his subjects might 
be held to their allegiance, issued a solemn firman guaranteeing 
to all his Christian subjects the fullest protection in their religion ; 
and then, calling upon Egypt and Tunis for their war contingents, 
he appealed to the Western powers for help. England and France 
responded to the appeal, and later Sardinia joined her forces to 
theirs. England fought to prevent Russia from getting through 
the Bosphorus to the Mediterranean, and thus endangering her 
route to her Eastern possessions. The French Emperor fought to 
avenge Moscow, and to render his new imperial throne attractive 
to his people by surrounding it with the glamour of successful war. 
Sardinia was led to join England and France through the policy of 
the far-sighted Cavour, who would thus have the Sardinians win the 
gratitude of these powers, so that in the next conflict with Austria 
the Italian patriots might have some strong friends to help them. 
Russia declared war towards the close of 1853, the Western pow- 
ers earl} 7 the following year. 

The main interest of the struggle, notwithstanding some naval 
operations in the Baltic, centered about Sebastopol, in the Crimea, 
Russia's great naval and military depot, and the key to the Euxine. 
Around this strongly fortified place were finally gathered 175,000 
soldiers of the allies. The siege, which lasted eleven months, was 
one of the most memorable and destructive in history. The Rus- 
sian general Todleben earned a great fame through his masterly 
defense of the works. The English " Light Brigade " earned 
immortality in their memorable charge at Balaklava. The French 



662 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

troops, through their dashing bravery, brought great fame to the 
Emperor who had sent them to gather glory for his throne. 

Two strong redoubts, the MalakorT and the Redan, were the key 
to the Russian position. The English captured the Redan, but 
lost it again ; the French, however, made a successful assault upon 
the Malakoff, and held it. The possession of this fortress by the 
enemy rendered Sebastopol untenable, and the Russians straight- 
way evacuated the place, leaving it, however, a "second Moscow." 
The war was now soon brought to an end by the Treaty of Paris 
(March 30, 1856). 

Every provision of the treaty had in view the maintenance of the 
integrity of the empire of the Sultan, and the restraining of the 
ambition of the Czar. Russia was given back Sebastopol, but was 
required to give up some territory at the mouth of the Danube, 
whereby her frontier was pushed back from that river ; to abandon 
all claims to a protectorate over any of the subjects of the Porte ; 
to agree not to raise any more fortresses on the Euxine nor keep 
upon that sea any armed ships, save what might be needed for 
police service. The Christian population of the Turkish dominions 
were placed under the guardianship of the great powers, who 
were to see that the Sublime Porte fulfilled its promise of granting 
perfect civil and religious equality and protection to all its subjects. 

Emancipation of the Serfs (1S5S-1863). — Alexander II. 
(1855-1881), who came to the Russian throne in the midst of the 
Crimean War, abandoned the narrow, exclusive, and intolerant 
system of his predecessor Nicholas, and reverting as it were to the 
policy of Peter the Great, labored for popular reform, and for the 
introduction into his dominions of the ideas and civilization of 
Western Europe. The reform which will ever give his name a 
place in the list of those rulers who have conferred singular bene- 
fits upon their subjects, was the emancipation of the serfs, a meas- 
ure that had long been agitated, and for which there was now a 
strong popular demand. 

Serfdom had been a legalized system in Russia for only a com- 
paratively short time. It was in the reign of Feodor Ivanovitch 



EMANCIPATION OE THE SERES. 663 

(i5 8 4-i59 ,s ) that the peasants, whose restless, barbarian instincts 
led them to be constantly wandering from one place to another, 
much to their own disadvantage as well as to that of the country at 
large, were forced by an imperial edict to remain in one place, and 
attend in a regular way to the tilling of the land. The order was 
in effect a decree against vagrancy. 

Now, in order to render intelligible just what the imperial edict of 
emancipation did for the serfs, we must say a word respecting the 
former land-system in Russia, and the personal status of the serf. As 
to the first, the estate of the lord was divided into two parts, the 
smaller of which was reserved by the proprietor for his own use, 
the larger being allotted to his serfs, who formed a village com- 
munity, known as the mir. 

Besides working the village lands, the fruits of which were 
enjoyed by the serfs, the villagers were obliged to till the lands of 
the lord, three days in a week being the usual servi< e required. 
The serfs were personally subject to the lord to the extent that he 
might flog them in case of disobedience, but he could not sell 
them individually as slaves are sold ; yet when he sold his estate, 
the whole community of serfs passed with it to the new proprietor. 
Exemption from the customary labor due the lord could be pur- 
chased by the payment of a certain sum of money, and enterprising 
serfs, doing this, entered into business for themselves in the towns 
and often rose to positions of influence and distinction, while still 
remaining nominally bondsmen. 

We shall now understand what the edict of emancipation, which 
was issued in 1S61, did for these semi-slaves. The owners of the 
peasant serfs were forced to give them the lands they had farmed 
for themselves, for which, however, they were to make some fixed 
return in labor or rent. The lands thus acquired became the 
common property of the village, being held as communal lands. 
All other serfs, such as house-servants and operatives in factories, 
were to gain their freedom at the end of two year-' additional ser- 
vice, during which time, however, they were to receive fair u.._ 

The Russian peasant has still some restrictions placed upon his 



664 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

movements. Thus, he cannot move from the village, or mir, to 
which he belongs, without first having secured the consent of the 
community. Usually such a privilege is granted only upon the 
payment of a certain sum of money. 

The measure of emancipation, so far as it touched the owner- 
ship of the land, was opposed by the aristocracy, while the masses 
of the people — it concerned personally over 45,000,000 l of them 
— were clamorously eager for its adoption. Alexander set a good 
example in freeing, by a series of special decrees (the first of which 
was issued in 1858), all the serfs of the crown lands, about 23,000,000 
in number, who were given at once, and without any return being ex- 
acted, the lands they had so long tilled as nominal bondsmen. We 
say nominal bondsmen, for this class labored under only a few 
restrictions, and were subject simply to the payment of a light rent. 
" In their case nothing more was needed than to give the name of 
freemen to men substantially free." — Rambaud. 

Besides the emancipation measure Alexander's name is associated 
with other reforms, the earlier part of his reign especially being 
characterized by a very liberal spirit. He reformed the adminis- 
tration of justice, conferred upon the districts into which the em- 
pire was divided a certain degree of local self-government, abolished 
flogging in the army, built railroads, and fostered the education of 
the clergy. This liberal policy was followed until the revolt of the 
Poles in 1863, when Alexander was led to adopt a more reaction- 
ary policy, a policy which persistently pursued has yielded bitter 
fruit in Nihilism. 

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. — Anxiously as the Treaty 
of Paris had provided for the permanent settlement of the Eastern 
Question, barely twenty-two years had passed before it was again 

1 " The unfree population of Russia amounted, at the time of the emanci- 
pation, to 45,863,068 individuals, divided into 23,300,000 Crown peasants, 
936,477 peasants of appanages, — institutions such as churches, schools, 
hospitals, mines, and factories, — 21,158,231 attached to the soil and belonging 
to proprietors, and 1,467,378 dvorovuie, or domestic servants." — Rambaud, 
History of Russia, Vol. III. p. 217. 




>-4 JkM i 



RUSS0-TUKKIS1I WAR OF 1877- 1 

up before Europe, and Russia and Turkey were again In arms. 
The SultaajLCo uld not o r would not give to his Christian sul>je< ts 
that equal protection of the laws which he had solemnly promised 
should be given. The Moslem hatred of the Christians was con- 
stantly leading to disturbance and outrage. In 1S60 theiv 
curred. a great massacre of Syrian Christians by the Druses and 
Turks, which led to the interference of the Western powers. In 
1875 the Greek Christian population of Herzegovina and Bosnia, 
goaded to desperation by the oppression of Turkish tax-gatb 
rose in revolt. Presently, inspired by the Herzegovinian and 
nian movement, the Bulgarians arose. The English government, 
favorably disposed to the Sultan, urged him to deal promptly with 
the insurgents, lest a general European war be kindled. To sup- 
press the revolt, the Turkish government now armed the Moham- 
medan population, these militia-men being known by what became 
the terrible name of Bashi-Bazouks. The result was what are 
known as the " Bulgarian atrocities," massacres of men, women, 
and children, more revolting perhaps than any others of which 
history tells. The greatest indignation was kindled throughout 
Europe. Servia and Montenegro declared war (1X76). The 
Russian armies were set in motion (1877). Kars in Asia Minor 
and Plevna in European Turkey fell into the hands of the Russians, 
and the armies of the Czar were once more in full march upon 
Constantinople, with the prospect of soon ending forever Turkish 
rule on European soil, when England, as in 1829, interfered, and 
by the movements of her iron-clads in the Bosphorus again arrested 
the triumphant march of the Russians. 

The Treaty of Berlin (187S) adjusted once more the disorgan- 
ized affairs of the Sublime Porte, and bolstered as well as was 
possible the "sick man." But he lost a good part of his estate. 
Out of those provinces of his dominions in Europe in which the 
Christian population was most numerous, there was created a group 
of wholly independent or half-independent states. The absolute 
independence of Servia, Roumania. and Montenegro (which last 
state had really never bowed its neck to the Turkish conquerors) 



666 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

was formally acknowledged ; Bulgaria, north of the Balkans, was to 
enjoy self-government, but was to pay a tribute to the Porte ; East 
Roumelia was to have a Christian governor, but was to remain 
under the dominion of the Sultan. The Balkans were thus made 
the northern boundary of the Turkish Empire in Europe. Bosnia 
and Herzegovina were given to the Austro- Hungarian monarchy. 
Russia acquired some places (Ardahan, Kars, and Batum) in 
Armenia, which gave her fuller control of the eastern shores of the 
Euxine, and also received Bessarabia on the Lower Danube, which 
territory she had been forced to give up at the close of the Crimean 
War, and which now again advanced her frontier to that river, a 
foothold upon which has been just such an object with the Czars 
as a hold upon the Rhine has been with the French rulers. 

In a word, Russia regained everything she had lost in the Cri- 
mean struggle, while Turkey was shorn of half her European pos- 
sessions. There were left in Europe under the direct authority of 
the Sultan barely 5,000,000 subjects, of which number about one 
half are Christians. England alone is responsible for the work of 
emancipation not having been made complete. Jo <■■'•' l-' ,;,//,-,«. t ^ 

Nihilism. — Russian Nihilism is a smothered French Revolu- 
tion. It is the form which Liberalism has taken under the repres- 
sions of a despotic autocracy ; for the government of Russia is a 
perfect absolutism, the Czar alone being legislator, judge, and 
executive for the Russian nation of 85,000,000 souls. He makes 
laws, levies taxes, expends the revenue, and condemns his subjects 
to exile or death, according to his own will, without let or hindrance. 

It was not, according to Mtiller, until the year 1878 that the des- 
perate character of Nihilism began to manifest itself, while the 
present strict, secret organization was not perfected until the fol- 
lowing year. The larger part of the membership of the society is 
made up of educated men, a considerable number being students 
of the universities. Although there is a minority who, like the 
Levelers of the French Revolution, would like to destroy all social 
and political institutions, the majority of the organization are rea- 
sonable. "The demands of the order are (1) a constitutional 



MfltlLlSM. 

government, (2) abolition of the infamous third division (secret 
police), (3) more humane treatment of political prisonei 
form in the judicial system, and (5) prohibition of the inquisitorial 
proceedings by which confessions are extorted from political pris- 
oners by starvation, thirst, and the knout." 

As an illustration of the terrible character of the repressive m 
ures of the government, we have the statement that during the 
years 1879 and 1880 sixty thousand persons were, without trial, 
sent into exile in Siberia. It seemed to the Russian people as 
though they might be allowed to shed their blood like water for the 
deliverance from despotism of the subjects of the Porte, but that 
they themselves must be content to live subject to the most unen- 
durable tyranny. 

The principle of the extreme Nihilists, that assassination is a 
righteous means of political reform, was now acted upon. Many 
officers of the government were murdered as the " hell brood of 
despotism," and various attempts were made upon the life of the 
Czar. Stricter repressive measures were instituted, and at length 
Count Melikoff was appointed as a sort of dictator. Although he 
introduced many reforms in the administration of the government, 
yet he refused to change its form according to the demands of the 
Nihilists, so the dangerous opposition to the Czar's government 
continued unabated. Finally, on March 13, 1881, the Czar was 
assassinated by means of a bomb filled with dynamite. 

The son of the murdered Czar, who now came to the throne as 
Alexander III., immediately instituted a still more sternly repn 
system than that pursued by his father, whom he seemed to r< 
as the victim of the over-liberal policy of the earlier years of his 
reign. It appears to be his determination to close his empire 
against the entrance of all liberal or progressive ideas, political, 
religious, and scientific, of Western Europe. A rigid censorship of 
the press has been established (1884), and the writings of such 
authors as Huxley, Spencer, Agassiz, Lyell, and Adam Smith are 
forbidden circulation. 

There can be but one outcome to this contest between the 



668 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

"Autocrat of all the Russias " and his subjects. Either through 
wise concessions on the part of its rulers, or through the throes 
of a terrible revolution, like that of 1 789 in France, the Russian 
empire will sooner or later come to possess a constitutional repre- 
sentative government. The Czar of Russia is simply fighting the 
hopeless battle that has been fought and lost by the despotic sover- 
eigns of every other European country — a battle which has the 
same invariable issue, the triumph of liberal principles and the ad- 
1 mission of the people to a participation in the government. 



FORMATION OF THE GERMAN CONFEDERATION. 669 



Uax 



CHAPTER VIII. 



GERMAN FREEDOM AND UNITY. 

Formation of the German Confederation (1815 ). The events 

of 1806 left Germany dismembered and crushed beneath the foot 
of Napoleon (see page 638). Passing the years of Napoleon's 
ascendency, we come to the celebrated Co ngress of Vienna, which 
convened in September, 1814. The affairs of Europe had not been 
in such confusion since the meeting of the commissioners who 
arranged the Peace of Westphalia. Germany especially was in a 
most chaotic state. It is the re-adjustment of its affairs alone that 
now concerns us. 

The German states were reorganized as a Confederation, with 
the Emperor of Austria President of the league. The union con- 
sisted of the Austrian Empire, the kingdoms of Prussia. Bavaria, 
Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and Hanover, the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel, 
grand-duchies, duchies, free cities, and principalities, — in all, 
thirty-nine states. A Diet formed of representatives of the several 
states was to settle all questions of dispute between the members 
of the Confederation, and determine matters of general concern. 
The league was to maintain an army of 30.000 men, the com- 
manders of which were to be elected by the Diet. In all matters 
concerning itself alone, each state was to retain its independence. 
It might carry on war with foreign states, or enter into alliance with 
them, but it must do nothing to harm any member of the Confedera- 
tion. The articles of union, in a spirit of concession to the growing 
sentiment of the times, provided that all sects of Christians should 
enjoy equal toleration, and that every state should establish a con- 
stitutional form of government. 



670 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Under this scheme of union Germany was to rest half a century 
— until 1866. Though Austria was nominally head of the Con- 
federation, Prussia was actually the most powerful member of the 
league. 

The Uprisings of 1830 : First Step towards Freedom. — For a 
long time previous to the French Revolution there had been grad- 
ually forming among the German people a double sentiment — a 
longing for freedom and unity. It was the influence of the rising 
patriotic party that had secured the provision in the act of con- 
federation which required that all the princes of the union should 
give their states a representative form of government. But the 
faces of these rulers, like those of the restored Bourbons in France, 
were turned towards the past. They opposed all changes that 
should give the people any part in the government, and clung to 
the old order of things. 

We have seen what was the consequence of the reactionary 
policy of the Bourbons in France, — how in 1830 the people arose, 
drove out Charles X., and set upon the throne the " Citizen King," 
Louis Philippe. Events ran exactly the same course in Germany. 
The princes refused or neglected to carry out in good faith that 
article of the act of confederation which provided for representa- 
tive governments in all the German states. The natural result 
was widespread discontent among the people. Consequently, 
when the French Revolution of 1830 occurred, a sympathetic 
thrill shot through Germany, and in places the popular party made 
threatening demonstrations against their tyrannical and reactionary 
rulers. 

Especially obnoxious to his people was the Duke of Brunswick, 
whose palace was destroyed and he himself driven into exile. 
His brother, into whose hands the government now passed, gave 
to the people the constitution demanded. 

Similar concessions were also made by the rulers of several other 
small states. Thus a little was gained for freedom, though after 
the flutter of the revolutionary year the princes again took up their 
retrograde policy, and did all in their- power to check the popular 



UPRISING OF 1848. 671 

movement and keep governmental matters out of the hands of the 
people. (jJy^J^ 

The Customs Union: First Step towards Unity.— Just about 
this time the first step was taken towards the real union of the 
German states. Under the Act of Confederation of 1815 the 
members of the Germanic body were situated almost precisely as 
the American colonies were under the Articles of Confederate 
1 781. And as it was the necessity of some general regulations in 
regard to commerce that impelled the American States to form a 
closer union, so it was the same necessity which now led the 
loosely confederated states of Germany to enter into an arrange- 
ment known as the Customs Union. This was a sort of commer- 
cial treaty binding those states that became parties to it — and 
eventually all the states save Austria acceded to the arrangement — 
to adopt among themselves the policy of free trade — that is, there 
were to be no duties levied on goods passing from one state of the 
Union to another belonging to it. 

Trade was thus left untrammeled, and the internal commerce of 
Germany greatly encouraged. But the greatest good resulting 
from the Union was, that it taught the people to think of a more 
perfect national union. And as Prussia was a prominent promoter 
and the center of the trade confederation, it accustomed the ( rer- 
mans to look to her as their head and chief. 

Uprising of 1848 : a Second Step towards Freedom. — The 
history of Germany from the uprising of 1830 to that of i.S4«S may 
be summarized by saying that during all these years the people 
were steadily growing more and more earnest in their demands for 
liberal forms of government, while the princes, strangely Mind to 
the spirit and tendency of the times, were stubbornly refusin 
concessions that should take from themselves any of their power 
as absolute rulers. In some instances the constitutions already 
granted were annulled, or their articles wen- disregarded. 

Finally, in 1848, news flew across the Rhine of the uprising in 
France against the reactionary government of Louis Philippe, and 
the establishment by the French people of a new republic. The 



672 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

intelligence kindled a name of excitement throughout Germany. 
The liberal party everywhere arose and demanded constitutional 
government. 

Almost all of the princes of the minor states yielded to the pop- 
ular clamor, and straightway adopted the liberal measures and 
instituted the reforms demanded. In Austria and Prussia, how- 
ever, the popular party carried their point only after demonstrations 
that issued in bloodshed. Prince Metternich, the celebrated 
prime minister of the Emperor of Austria, was forced to flee the 
country, because he had opposed so obstinately all the demands of 
the Liberals. At last the Emperor, thoroughly frightened, assented 
to the calling of a Diet, or Parliament, to be formed of representa- 
tives from all his hereditary dominions, chosen by popular vote. 

At the Prussian capital Berlin there was serious fighting in the 
streets between the people and the soldiers, and the excitement 
was not quieted until the king, Frederick William IV., assured the 
people that their demands for constitutional government should be 
granted. According to his promise a National Assembly was 
called, and a more liberal policy adopted. A constitution was 
framed, and on February 6 l _iS^o J the king took an oath to rule in 
accord with its provisions. " From that time Pr ussia may be 
regarded as, at least nominally, a constitutional state," 

The Revolution of 1848 thus effected much for the cause of 
liberal government in Germany. The movements of that revolu- 
tionary year brought into the hands of the people much more 
power than they had ever before exercised. 

The popular assemblies, however, it should be added, did not 
at once fulfill all the expectations of the friends of liberal govern- 
ment. The members composing these bodies were usually igno- 
rant of the modes of procedure in deliberative assemblies, and 
consequently at first made awkward work of their new business. 

The National Assembly : Efforts after Union. — At this 
same time the longing for nationality expressed itself in an attempt 
to bind the German states in a closer union by means of a national 
Parliament to take the place of the inefficient Diet created by the 



RIVALRY BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA, 

Act of Confederation in 1815. This new assembly met in Berlin 
in May, 1848. In its aims and hopes this body may be lik 
to our own Federal Convention of 1787. Unlike the Convention, 
however, which framed the constitution under which the American 
States formed a permanent union, this assembly failed in the ends 
it had in view. The states could not be brought to accept a 
national constitution. It was the rivalry of Austria and Prussia 
that, more than .anything else, prevented the end sought from being 
reached. Austria, through her unreasonable demands, drove the 
majority of the assembly into opposition to her, and led them to 
offer the Imperial crown to the Prussian king, Frederick William, 
who, however, refused it, for the reason that the proposed constitu- 
tion would not give him sufficient power to act efficiently as the 
head of the nation. 

Soon after this some of the states recalled their delegates, and 
the assembly fell to pieces, disappointing the hopes of those who 
had looked to it for the unification of the Fatherland. But, 
although failing in its direct object, the assembly served to show 
how widespread and earnest was the feeling among the German 
states that they should draw together in a closer and firmer union. 

Hungary: Kossuth. — While these efforts for German unity were 
being made, the Austrian Emperor was having serious trouble with 
his Hungarian subjects. Led by the distinguished orator Kossuth, 
they had revolted, and declared their independence. A memora- 
ble struggle now followed (1 848-1 849), in which the patriotic 
Hungarians made a noble fight for freedom, but were at last over- 
powered and crushed by the combined Austrian and Russian 
armies, the Czar having been induced to aid in the suppression of 
the revolt through fear that the example of successful rebellion on 
his frontier might be a dangerous incitement to his own discon- 
tented subjects. 

Rivalry between Austria and Prussia. — While the attention of 
Austria was directed to the suppression of the Hungarian rebels, 
Prussia proposed a plan for the unification of Germany, with her- 
self as the head of the body, Austria being excluded from the eon- 



674 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

federation. Several of the states joined Prussia in this move, and 
an alliance called the " German Union " was formed. Austria 
watched with the greatest concern this bold move of her rival for 
leadership in German affairs, a move whereby she was to be pushed 
aside entirely, and just as soon as the Hungarian trouble was com- 
posed, she made a counter-move to that of Prussia, by forming a 
confederation of all those states which she could persuade to accept 
her leadership. 

The state of Germany at this moment, divided between the 
allies of Austria and those of Prussia, may be likened to the condi- 
tion of Greece at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, when the 
Hellenic states had grouped themselves, according to their sympa- 
thies, about Athens and Sparta. It does not require a second 
Pericles to see war lowering in the horizon. 
*— The Seven Weeks' War between Austria and Prussia (1866). 
j — The inevitable war which was to decide whether Austria or 
Prussia should be leader in German affairs came on apace. Every 
event seemed to crowd Germany on towards it. 

First came the Austro-Sardinian War in 1859. In that year 
Victor Emmanuel, king of Sardinia, to whom the disunited and 
oppressed Italians had begun to look as the champion of the cause 
of Italian unity, demanded of the Emperor of Austria that he 
should give Lombardy and Venetia " separate and national govern- 
ment," with the threat of immediate war in case of refusal. He 
also demanded further that Austria should cease meddling in 
Italian affairs. 

War was the outcome. France aided Sardinia. In the great 
battles of Magen ta and Solferino the Austrian armies were com- 
pletely overwhelmed. Several of the Italian states now united 
themselves to the Sardinian Kingdom, and thus a long step was 
taken towards the unification of Italy. This partial nationalization 
of the Italian peoples naturally intensified the longing for unity in 
Germany ; and, as the agitation increased, the rival claims of 
Austria and Prussia as to which should be first in the future nation 
were more and more warmly discussed, until jealousy developed 
into the bitterest hatred. 



WAR BETWEEN A US TRL I AND PR ( 'SSI. I. 675 

Then, in the year 1S61, Frederick William IV. of Prussia died, 
and his brother, already an old man of sixty, yet destined to be for 
more than a score of years the central figure in the movement for 
German unity, came to the Prussian throne as William I. He soon 
called to his side the now distinguished Otto von Bismarck as his 
prime minister, a man of woAderful energy and decision, whose 
policies have shaped German affairs for a quarter of a century. I Ie 
saw clearly enough how the vexed question between Austria and 
Prussia was to be settled — "by blood and iron." Mis appearance 
at the head of Prussian affairs marks an epoch in history. He was 
in disposition a conservative and despot, and the liberal party dis- 
trusted and hated him. In the Prussian Assembly the national 
party steadily opposed all his measures, being fully persuaded that 
anything emanating from Bismarck must look towards despotism. 

Then, in the year 1S64, came the Schleswig-Holstein troubles. 
Holstein was a German duchy held by the Danish king, just as the 
first sovereigns of the present dynasty in England held Hanover. 
When, in 1863, Frederick VII. of Denmark died, the male line of 
the royal family became extinct, and it was held by the Germans 
that now the two duchies (for an old treaty made them insepara- 
ble), should become entirely free of the Danish crown, just as 
Hanover dropped away from England upon the death of William 
IV. and the accession of Victoria in 1837. The dispute 
ripened into war, in which all the German states joined against the 
king of Denmark, Christian IX. Of course Denmark was soon 
overpowered, and was forced to resign her claims to the duchies. 

Straightway the duchies became a bone of contention between 
Prussia and Austria. Prussia was bent upon annexing them to her 
dominions; Austria did not want them for herself, but was deter- 
mined that her rival should not have them. There was endless 
disputing and treaty-making about the petty matter, in all of which 
Count von Bismarck was evidently aiming to entangle things more 
hopelessly, in order that he might have a pretext for using the sword 
to cut the Gordian knot, and for applying to the solution of the 
entire dispute between Prussia and Austria his cure o[ " Mood and 
iron." 



676 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Early in 1866 the war opened. Almost all of the lesser states 
grouped themselves about Austria. Prussia, however, found a ready- 
ally in Italy, which served to divert a part of the x\ustrian forces. 
Yet it seemed an unequal contest, the population of Prussia at this 
time not being more than one third (19,000,000) that of the states 
arrayed against her. But Bismarck had been preparing Prussia for 
the struggle which he had long foreseen, and now the little kingdom, 
with the best disciplined army in the world, headed by the great 
commander Von Moltke, was to astonish the world by a repetition 
of her achievements under the inspiration of Frederick the Great. 

The Prussian armies, numbering more than a quarter of a million 
of men, began to move about the middle of June. Saxony, Hano- 
ver, and some other smaller states were commanded to remain 
neutral, and were given twelve hours to decide what course they 
would adopt. They returned no reply, and forthwith the Prussian 
armies were inarched into all the states. Battle followed battle in 
rapid succession. Almost every encounter proved a victory for the 
Prussians. On the third of July was fought the great battle of 
Sadowji, in Bohemia, the Waterloo of the war. The Austrians were 
utterly routed, and " on the battle-field the army struck up the 
same old choral which the troops of Frederick the Great had sung 
on the field of Leuthen." 

The victory of Sadowa practically decided the war. The Prus- 
sians pushing on towards Vienna, the Emperor was forced to sue 
for peace, and on the 23d day of August the P eace of Prague was 
signed. / Tib 

The long debate between Austria and Prussia was over. By the 
terms of the treaty Austria was shut out from participation in Ger- 
man affairs. Prussia was now without a rival in Germany. 

Establishment of the North-German Union (1867). — Now 
quickly followed the reorganization of the northern states of Ger- 
many in what was called the North-German Union, under the 
leadership of Prussia, whose territories were enlarged by the annex- 
ation of Frankfort, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and Nassau. Prussia 
was to have command of the entire military force of the several 



THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR. 677 

states composing the league, the Prussian king being President of 
the Union. A constitution was adopted which provided that the 
affairs of the confederation should be managed by a I >iet, the mem- 
bers of which were to be chosen by the different states. 

Thus was a long step taken towards German unity. Bismarck's 
policy of "blood and iron," though seemingly rough and brutal, 
now promised to prove a cure indeed for all of Germany's troubles. 
Though so much had been effected, there was still remaining much 
to be desired. The states to the south of the Main — Baden, 
Bavaria, and Wiirtemberg — were yet wanting to complete the unifi- 
cation of the Fatherland. Many patriots both north and south of 
the dividing line earnestly desired the perfect union of North and 
South. But the Catholics of the southern states were bitterly 
opposed to Prussia's being exalted to the chief place in Germany 
because she was Protestant, while many of the democratic party 
were loth to see Germany reconstructed under the supremacy of 
Prussia on account of the repressive and despotic character of her 
government. But the fervid enthusiasm awakened by another 
successful war serves to weld the states of both North and South 
into a firm and close union, and complete the work of Germany's 
unification. 

The Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). — The war to which we 
referred in the above paragraph was the struggle which broke out 
between France and Prussia in 1870. It will be recalled with 
what jealousy France viewed the rise to power of the House of 
Hohenzollern. All of her old bitter hostility to the House of 
Austria seems to have been transferred to her successful rival in 
the North. So when in 1870 the vacant throne of Spain was 
offered to Leopold, a member of the Hohenzollern family, the Em- 
peror Napoleon III. affected to see in this a scheme on the part 
of the House of Hohenzollern to unite the interests of Prussia and 
Spain, just as Austria and Spain were united, with such disastrous 
consequences to the peace of Europe, under the princes of the 
House of Hapsburg. Even after Leopold, to avoid displea 
France, had declined the proffered crown, the Emperor Napoleon 



673 FOURTH PERIOD.- ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

demanded of King William assurance that no member of the 
House of Hohenzollern should ever become a candidate for the 
Spanish throne. The demand was rudely made, was refused, and 
the two nations rushed together in a struggle which was destined 
to prove terribly disastrous to France, and memorable to Germany 
for the glory and unity it won for her. 

The important thing for us to notice here is the enthusiasm that 
the war awakened not only throughout the states of the North- 
German Confederation, but among the states of the South as well, 
which placed their armies at the disposal of King William. The 
cause was looked upon as a national one, and a patriotic fervor 
stirred the hearts of all Germans alike. " It must not be sup- 
posed," says Sime, " that the miserable Hohenzollern dispute 
had really anything to do with the war. It was even less impor- 
tant than the Schleswig-Holstein quarrel had been in the Austro- 
Prussian war. In a few days the world forgot that the Prince of 
Hohenzollern had been a candidate for the Spanish throne. What 
France was really about to fight for was the maintenance of her 
supposed supremacy in Europe. Germany had taken up arms in 
her own defense, and perhaps was not unwilling to engage in a 
struggle by which she might thoroughly humble a power that had 
for centuries lost no opportunity of adding to her divisions, robbing 
her of her territory, and depriving her of her just place among the 
nations." 

Establishment of the New German Empire (1871). — The 
astonishing successes of the German armies on French soil created 
among Germans everywhere such patriotic pride in the Father- 
land, that all the obstacles which had hitherto prevented anything 
more than a partial union of the members of the Germanic body 
were now swept out of the way by an irresistible tide of national 
sentiment. While the siege of Paris was progressing, commis- 
sioners were sent by the southern states to Versailles, the head- 
quarters of King William, to represent to him that they were ready 
and anxious to enter the North-German Union. Thus in rapid 
succession Baden, Bavaria, and Wurtembercr were received into the 



rom *0 Green w 

! \ 




from lu7 Washingto 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE. 

Confederation, the name of which was now changed to that of the 

German Confederation. 

Scarcely was this accomplished, when, upon the »n of 

the king of Bavaria, King William, who now bore the tit 

President of the Confederation, was given the title of German 
Emperor, which honor was to be hereditary in his family. ( to the 
1 8th of January, 187 1, within the Palace of Versailles,- the siege 
of Paris being still in progress, — amidst indescribable enthusiasm, 
the Imperial dignity was formally conferred upon King William, 
and Germany became a constitutional Empire. 

Thus amidst the throes of war the free German nation was born. 
The German peoples, after long centuries of division and servitude, 
had at last found Freedom and Unity. 



6S0 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 



Three Centuries of Servitude. — The history of Italy during the 
first three centuries of the modern era is an uninstructive and 
painful story of division, servitude, and humiliation. Throughout 
this entire period Italy was simply a "geographical division." If 
ever the declaration of Milton respecting the quarrels of the petty 
Saxon states in early England, to the effect that they no more con- 
cern the student of history than the " battles of crows and kites," 
might be properly made in regard to any such contentions, it surely 
could be most appropriately made in reference to the interminable 
wars and wranglings of which Italy was the scene during the 
sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The wars and 
contentions of the nineteenth century have been, indeed, almost as 
numerous and constant as were those of the preceding ages, but 
they have been animated, on one side at least, by a singleness and 
loftiness of purpose which have not only redeemed them from all 
triviality, but have lent to them the very greatest dignity, signifi- 
cance, and interest. 

During almost the whole of the period in question the influence 
of the House of Hapsburg was supreme in Italian affairs, dominion 
resting first in the Spanish branch and then in the Austrian. 

Italy at the Downfall of Napoleon. — In Italy as well as in 
other countries the French Revolution awakened hopes which 
were doomed to bitter disappointment. It rid the Italians of their 
old masters, and for a moment gave them the institutions of free- 
dom and self-government. But as liberty in France gave place to 
despotism, so did it in Italy, and the Italians soon discovered that 



ITALY AT THE DOWNFALL OF NAPOLk 

they had simply exchanged masters. Hence they were as ready 
in 1 8 14 to drive out the French as a little before, in respon 
Napoleon's call, they had been to help chase the Austrians beyond 
the Alps. 

But now came a second disappointment. Instead of being left 
to themselves to set up constitutional monarchies or republican 
governments as they might prefer, the Italian peoples, as being the 
most dangerously infected with the ideas of the Revolution, were, 
by the reactionary Congress of Vienna, condemned to the most 
strict and ignominious slavery. The former commonwealths 
forbidden to restore their ancient institutions, while the petty prin- 
cipalities were handed over in almost every case to the tyrants or 
the heirs of the tyrants who had ruled them before the Revolution. 
Austria appropriated Venetia and Lombardy, and from Northern 
Italy assumed to direct the affairs of the whole peninsula. Tus- 
cany, Modena, Parma, and Piacenza were given to princes of the 
House of Hapsburg. Naples was restored to its old Bourbon 
rulers. The Pope and Victor Emmanuel I., king of Sardinia, were 
the only native rulers. The latter, besides the island of Sardinia, 
which had been his retreat during the Napoleonic upheaval, now 
came again into possession of Piedmont, to which was added the 
territory of Genoa. The little republic of San Marino, whose very 
insignificance had protected it during the changes of the Revolu- 
tion, was the only patch of free population left in the entire 
peninsula. 1 

" Italy was divided on the map, but she had made up her mind 
to be one." The Revolution had sown the seeds of Liberty, and 
time only was needed for their maturing. The Cisalpine, the Ligu- 
rian, the Parthenopsean, the Tiberine republics, short-lived though 
they were, had awakened in the people an aspiration for 
government; while Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, though equally 

1 "On the top of a little mountain at the outskirts of the Apennines which 
overlook the sea by Rimini, sat Liberty, the queen of .1 few hundred cil 
surveying the muddy ocean of Franco-Spanish, Itallo-Teutonic despotism which 
drowned Italy through all her length and breadth."- SYMOU 



632 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

delusive, had nevertheless inspired thousands of Italian patriots 
with the sentiment of national unity. Thus the French Revolution, 
disappointing as seemed its issue, really imparted to Italy her first 
impulse in the direction of freedom and national organization. 

Arbitrary Rule of the Restored Princes. — The setting up of 
the overturned thrones meant, of course, the re-instating of the old 
tyrannies. The liberal constitutions of the revolutionary period 
were set aside, and the old constitutions were brought out like 
" wonder-working relics." The restored despots came back with 
an implacable hatred of everything French. They swept away all 
French institutions that were supposed to tend in the least to Lib- 
eralism. In the Papal States the restored Pope went to the most 
absurd lengths in his policy of retrogression. The Inquisition was 
again set up, and a strict censorship of the press established. 
Convents that had been closed, were re-opened. Vaccination and 
street-lamps, French innovations, were abolished. 

In Sardinia, King Victor Emmanuel I. instituted an equally 
retrograde policy. Nothing that bore the French stamp, nothing 
that had been set up by French hands, was allowed to remain. 
Even cases that had been tried and decided in the French courts 
had now to be tried over again. Thus everything was unsettled. 
The monks were given back their monasteries, which had been 
converted into factories. Even the French furniture in the royal 
palace at Turin was thrown out of the windows, and the French 
plants in the royal gardens were pulled up root and branch. The 
magnificent bridge over the Po, built by Napoleon, barely escaped 
destruction, and travel over the Mount Cenis road, also constructed 
by the French Emperor, was discouraged, in order that this monu- 
ment of French genius might be forgotten. 

Thus was Italy subjected to the despotism of the restored tyrants, 
who bowed in vassalage to Austria, and in obedience to her behests 
and their own vindictive and reactionary proclivities, set ab6ut car- 
rying out in the Italian peninsula the repressive and retrograde 
principles of the Holy Alliance. 

The Carbonari : Uprising of 1820-1821. — The natural results 



THE CARBONARI. 

of the arbitrary rule and retrogressive policy of the restored 
princes was deep and wide-spread discontent. The French Revo- 
lution, as we have said, had sown broadcast in Italy the seeds of 
liberty, and their growth could not be checked by the repressions of 
tyranny. An old secret organization, the members of which were 
known as the Carbonari (charcoal-burners), formed the nucleus 
about which gathered the elements of disaffection. < Organized at 
first to oppose tyranny in the Church, it now turned its opposition 
against despotism in the State, and made national unity and inde- 
pendence its watchword. 

In 1820, incited by the revolution in Spain, the Carbonari raised 
an insurrection in Naples, and forced King Ferdinand, who was 
ruler of both Naples and Sicily, now united under the name of the 
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, to grant his Neapolitan subjects what 
was known as the Spanish Constitution of 181 2, which he swore 
faithfully to observe, in these words : " Almighty God, whose all- 
seeing eye reaches the soul and the future, if I lie or should break 
my oath, send down at once the lightnings of thy revenge upon 
me." 

The new constitutional kingdom was very soon in trouble. First, 
the people in Sicily rose against the revolutionary government and 
demanded independence ; but this secession movement was quickly 
suppressed by the Neapolitan army. Then Prince Metternich, who 
had been watching the doings of the Liberal party in Naples, inter- 
fered to mar their plans. He reasoned that Lombardy and Venetia 
could be kept free from the contagion of Liberalism only by the 
stamping out of the infection wherever else in Italy it might show 
itself. Consequently he now gave the Carbonari notice that Austria 
would maintain the existing order of things in the peninsula, and 
having secured the assent or co-operation of the Emperor of R 
and the king of Prussia, he announced to the Neapolitans that 
unless the revolutionary companies were straightway disbanded, an 
Austrian army would appear at Naples, and if need be, a Russian 
force to support it. The Neapolitans, in a noble burst of indigna- 
tion at this interference in their affairs by the insolent Austrian. 



6S4 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

resolved that death was better than submission to such dictation. 
But the 60,000 Austrian troops which were sent against them very 
quickly crushed the revolutionary forces. Ferdinand was now 
re-instated in his former absolute authority, and everything was put 
back on the old footing. 

Meanwhile a similar revolution was running its course in Pied- 
mont, the aim of which was to secure a liberal constitution for 
Sardinia, and to drive the Austrians out of Lombardy and join it to 
the Sardinian kingdom, and thus to make a beginning in the work 
of Italian liberation and unification. Advantage had been taken of 
the absence of the Austrian army in Naples, and an uprising 
planned. King Victor Emmanuel I., rather than yield to the de- 
mands of his people for a constitutional government, gave up his 
crown, and was succeeded by his brother Charles Felix, who, by 
threatening to call to his aid the Austrian army, compelled his sub- 
jects to cease their clamor about kings ruling, not by the grace of 
God, but by the will of the people. 

The Revolution of 1830-1831. — For just ten years all Italy lay 
in sullen vassalage to Austria. Then the revolutionary years of 
1830-31 witnessed a repetition of the scenes of 1820-21. The 
revolution in France which placed Louis Philippe upon the French 
throne sent a tremor of excitement and hope through all Italy. 
The centre of the revolution was the Papal States, the people of 
which were suffering a worse than Oriental despotism. The death 
of the Pope towards the close of the year 1830 appeared to favor 
the undertaking. In a short time nearly all the States of the Church 
were in revolt, and a resolution of the insurrectionists declared that 
the temporal rule of the Pope was and by right ought to be forever 
ended. A new government with a President at its head was formed 
for what was to be known as the United Italian Provinces. 

But the election of a new Pope who had no idea of giving up the 
patrimony of St. Peter, and the presence of Austrian troops, who, 
" true to their old principle of hurrying with their extinguishers to 
any spot in Italy where a crater opened," had poured into Central 
Italy, resulted in the speedy quenching of the flames of the 
insurrection. 



THE REVOLUTION OF 1848-1849. 685 



m e 
ans 



The Three Parties : Plans for National Organization. — Tw 
now had Austrian armies crushed the aspirations of the [talis 

after national unity and freedom. Italian hatred of these fo] 
intermeddlers who were causing them to miss their destiny, 
evermore intense, and " death to the Germans " became the watch- 
cry that united all the peoples of the peninsula. 

But while united in their deadly hatred of the Austrians, the 
Italians were divided in their views respecting the best plan for 
national organization. One party, known as Young Italy, founded 
and inspired by the patriot Joseph Mazzini, wanted a repnl 
another part y wanted a confederation of the various states ; while- 
still a third wished to see Italy a constitutional monarchy, with the 
king of Sardinia at its head. 

The chief of the democratic party, as we have just mentioned, 
was the eloquent and impetuous Mazzini, whose prophe tic faith 
saw Italy in the near future united and free and self-governed. 
He was rash and hasty, and would, by a general onset of the Italian-. 
drive the Austrians out of the land. 

Among those in favor of the federal plan was Pope Pius IX'., 
who came to the papal chair in 1846. He was in favor of the 
states adopting liberal constitutions, and then forming a league, the 
centre and head of which should be Rome and the Pope. 

The constitutional monarchy party looked to the king oi 
dinia as the only possible liberator of Italy, he being the repre- 
sentative of the single royal house in the whole peninsula that might 
in any sense be regarded as native or national. 

The means adopted by the Red Republicans for the attainment 
of their ends was too often " violence without policy"; by the 
Federalists, a vigorous policy of reform ; by the Constitutionalists, 
the fostering of liberal and patriotic sentiments through the con- 
stant use of the press. 

The Revolution of 1848-1849. — After the suppression of the 
uprising of 1830, until the approach of the momentous year of 
1848, Italy lay restless under the heel of her oppressor. The 
republican movements throughout the continent of Europe which 



686 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

characterized that year of revolutions inspired the Italian patriots 
to make another attempt to achieve independence and nationality. 
Everywhere throughout the peninsula they rose against their des- 
potic rulers, and forced them to grant constitutions and institute 
reforms. The interest of the conflict centered in North Italy. 
Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, unfortunately a rash and incapable 
man, though a true-hearted and zealous patriot, taking advantage 
of the embarrassment of the Austrian government caused by 
popular uprisings in all parts of its dominions, declared war against 
Austria, and straightway flung upon her forces in Italy the Sar- 
dinian army, which had been augmented by volunteers from all 
parts of Italy, and by exiles who had flocked from their foreign 
places of refuge. At first he was everywhere successful, and Lom- 
bardy and Venice both placed themselves under his rule ; but 
finally the veteran Austrian general Radetzky turned the tide of 
war against him, recovered Lombardy, and invading Piedmont, 
inflicted upon the Sardinian army such a defeat that Charles Albert 
was constrained to resign his crown in favor of his son Victor 
Emmanuel II., who, he hoped, would be able to secure more 
advantageous terms from the victorious Austrians than he himself 
could expect to obtain. Going into exile, the self-deposed king 
soon died of a broken heart, a martyr to the cause of Italian 
freedom. 

Meanwhile Rome, under the inspiration of Mazzini and Gari- 
baldi, had risen and driven out the Pope, — who had disappointed 
all the hopes which his earlier espousal of the popular cause had 
awakened, — and metamorphosed itself into a Republic. But 
the new Tiberine Republic was overthrown by the troops of the 
new French Republic, and the Pope was re-instated. This in- 
terference by the French in Italian affairs was instigated by their 
jealousy of Austria, and by the anxious desire of Louis Napoleon 
to win the good-will of the Catholic clergy in France. 

Thus through the intervention of foreigners was the third Italian 
revolution thwarted. By the fall of the year 1849 the Liberals 
were everywhere crushed, their leaders executed, imprisoned, or 



VICTOR EMMANUEL, COUNT CAVOUR, GARIBALDI. 






driven into exile, and the dream of [taly'a unity and freedom dis- 
pelled by the hard present fact of renewed tyranny and foi 

domination. 

Much, however, had been gained. The patriotic party had had 
revealed to itself its strength, and at the same time the 
of united action, — of the adoption of a single policy. 1 [enceforth 
the Republicans and Federalists were more inclined to give up as 
impracticable their plans of national organization, and with the 
Constitutionalists to look upon the kingdom of Sardinia as the 
only possible basis and nucleus of a free and united Italy. 

Victor Emmanuel II., Count Cavour, and Garibaldi. — Sardinia 
was a state which had gradually grown into power in the northwest 
corner of the peninsula. We have just noticed the accession to 
its throne of Victor Emmanuel II. To him it was that the hopes 
of the Italian patriots now turned. Nor were these hopes to be 
disappointed. Victor Emmanuel was the destined liberator of 
Italy, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that his was the 
name in which the achievement was to be effected by the wise- 
policy of his great minister Count Cavour, and the reckless daring 
of the hero Garibaldi. 

Victor Emmanuel represented the only native Italian dynasty 
— the old and famous House of Savoy, founded in 1027, and thus 
probably the oldest of the reigning families of Europe. Starting 
at first with the title of Count, the princes of the family had won 
first the ducal and then the royal dignity. The possessions of the 
House consisted at first of the county of Savoy in Southeastern 
France ; but gradually it lost its territory north of the Alps and as con- 
stantly added to its possessions south of the mountains, until at the 
time where we have arrived it had become essentially an Italian 
state, known as the Kingdom of Sardinia, embracing Piedmont 1 in 
Italy itself, and the island of Sardinia, which was acquired by the 
House of Savoy in 1720, and which raised the Dukes of Savoy to 
the kingly rank, and gave name to their kingdom. This was the 
state which was destined to become the centre of a free and united 
] From the Latin PedemonHum, " foot of the mountain." 



688 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Italy, just as Castile grew into Spain, and Prussia into the German 
Empire. 

Count Cavour was a man of large hopes and large plans. His 
single aim and purpose was the independence and unification of 
Italy. He was the genius of Italian liberty. He looked not alone 
to the welfare of Sardinia, but to that of the whole peninsula. He 
expostulated with the despots of the different states, and urged 
upon them the adoption of more liberal forms of government. It 
will be recalled that it was his far-sighted policy that sent the 
Sardinian troops to aid England and France against Russia in the 
Crimean War, with the double purpose of humbling the Czar, 
whom Cavour regarded as one of the leading champions of des- 
potic government, and of earning the gratitude of the allies, so that 
the Italians in their future struggles with Austria might not have to 
fight their battles alone. Cavour in this did not miscalculate, as we 
shall see. 

Garibaldi, "the hero of the red shirt," the knight-errant of 
Italian independence, whose name has been already mentioned 
in connection with the uprising in Rome in 1848, was a most re- 
markable character. Though yet barely past middle life, he had 
led a career singularly crowded with varied experiences and 
romantic adventures. Because of his violent republicanism, he 
was exiled from Italy in 1834. A little later we find him teaching 
in Constantinople, then fighting in South America (1835), then 
participating in the Italian struggle of 1848-49. Banished from 
Italy a second time, he became a candle-maker in the city of New 
York (1854). Then he returned to his native land in time to take 
part in the struggle of France and Sardinia against Austria in 
1859-60. 

The Austro-Sardinian War (1859-1860). — The hour for strik- 
ing another blow for the freedom of Italy had now arrived. In 
1859 Count Cavour, in pursuance of his national policy for Italy, 
having first made a secret arrangement with the French Emperor, 
gave Austria to understand that unless she granted Lombardy and 
Venetia free government and ceased to interfere in the affairs of 



SICILY AND NAPLES. 

the rest of Italy, Sardinia would declare war against her. < )f 
course the Austrian government refused to accede to the demand, 
and almost immediately war followed. The French Ian; 
actuated probably less by gratitude for the aid of the Sardinian 
contingent in the Crimean struggle than by jealousy of Austria and 
the promise of Savoy and Nice in ease of a successful issue of the 
war, supported the Sardinians with the armies of France. The two 
great victories of Magenta and SolferinO seemed to promise to the 
allies a triumphant march to the Adriatic. But just now die threat- 
ening attitude of Prussia and other German states, in connei tion 
with other considerations, led Napoleon to enter upon negotiations 
of peace with the Austrian Emperor at Villafranca. 

The outcome was that Austria retained Venice, but gave up to 
Sardinia the larger part of Lombardy. The Sardinians were bit- 
terly disappointed that they did not get Venetia, and Loudly ac- 
cused the French Emperor of having betrayed their cause, since at 
the outset he had promised them that he would free Italy from the 
mountains to the sea. But Sardinia found compensation for Ven- 
ice in the accession of Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and Romagna, 
the peoples of which states, having discarded their old rulers, be- 
sought Victor Emmanuel to permit them to unite themselves to 
his kingdom. Thus, as the result of the war, the king of Sardinia 
had added to his subjects a population of 9,000,000. One long 
step was taken in the way of Italian unity and freedom. A strong 
Italian kingdom had been formed, and thus a firm basis laid for 
the national organization of the entire peninsula. 

But while the Sardinian kingdom was thus vastly extended to 
the east and the south, it was cut away a little on the north. 
Savoy and Nice, the former " the cradle of the Savoyard Ho 
were given as the price of her services to France. Victor Emman- 
uel's, or rather Count Cavour's, surrender of this territory greatly 
displeased many Italians, and especially Garibaldi, who w 
native of Nice. 

Sicily and Naples added to Victor Emmanuel's Kingdom 
(i860). — The romantic and adventurous daring of the hero Gari- 



690 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

baldi now added Sicily and Naples to the possessions of Victor 
Emmanuel, and changed the kingdom of Sardinia into the kingdom 
of Italy. 

The king of Naples and Sicily, Ferdinand II., was a typical des- 
pot and bigot. Hundreds of his subjects, fleeing from his intolera- 
ble tyranny, found an asylum in the dominions of Victor Emmanuel. 
His son, known as Francis II., who came to the throne in 1859, 
followed in the footsteps of his father. The second year of his 
reign his subjects rose in revolt. Victor Emmanuel and his minister 
Cavour were in sympathy with the movement, yet dared not send 
the insurgents aid through fear of arousing the jealousy of Austria 
or France. But Garibaldi, untrammeled by any such considera- 
tions, having gathered a band of a thousand or more volunteers, 
set sail from Genoa for Sicily, where upon landing he assumed the 
title of Dictator of Sicily for Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, and 
quickly drove the troops of King Francis out of the island. Then 
crossing to the mainland, he marched triumphantly to Naples, 
whose inhabitants hailed him tumultuously as their Deliverer. 

The Neapolitans and Sicilians now voted almost unanimously 
for annexation to the Sardinian kingdom. The hero Garibaldi, 
having first met and hailed his sovereign " King of Italy," surren- 
dered his dictatorship, and retired to the island of Capri, in the 
bay of Naples. He had earned the lasting gratitude of his 
country. 

In February, 1861, the first Italian Parliament was assembled, in 
Turin, and by this body was formally conferred upon Victor Em- 
manuel the title which had already been bestowed by universal 
acclamation. 

Thus was another great step taken in the unification of Italy. 
Nine millions more of Italians had become the subjects of Victor 
Emmanuel. There was now wanting to the complete union of 
Italy only Venetia and the Papal territories. 

Death of Cavour. — A few months after the liberation of Naples 
and Sicily the beloved Count Cavour, overburdened with cares and 
anxieties, was taken away by sudden death. For the few days 



ROME BECOMES THE CAPITAL. 69] 

that he lingered on the verge of the grave, the distressed nation 
hung about him as though they would by their love hold him 
among them until the work of Italy's emancipation was complete. 
His last words to his sovereign, Victor Emmanuel, were strangely 
impressive. Upon taking leave of his dying minister the d .-. 
fore his death, the king promised to call again on the morrow, 
shall not be here to-morrow," was the reply of the departing 
patriot. 

Venetia added to the Kingdom (1S66). — The Seven W 
War which broke out between Prussia and Austria in 1866 afforded 
the Italian patriots the opportunity for which they were watching 
to make Venetia a part of the kingdom of Italy. Victor Emman- 
uel formed an alliance with the king of Prussia, one of the condi- 
tions of which was that no peace should be made with Austria 
until she had surrendered Venetia to Italy. The speedy issue of 
the war added the coveted territory to the dominions of Victor 
Emmanuel. Rome alone was now lacking to the complete unifi- 
cation of Italy. 

Rome becomes the Capital (1870). — It has been seen that 
after the liberation of Naples and Sicily the city of Turin, the old 
capital of the Sardinian kingdom, was made the capital of the new 
kingdom of Italy. In 1865 the seat of government was transferred 
to Florence. But the Italians looked forward to the time when 
Rome, the ancient mistress of the peninsula and of the world, 
should be their capital. The power of the Pope, however, was 
upheld by the French, and this made it impossible for the Italians 
to have their will in this matter without a conflict with France. 
Twice did Garibaldi raise an army of volunteers to seize the city 
for Italy and for freedom, as he had seized Sicily and Naples ; but 
the French Emperor informed Victor Emmanuel that he should 
hold him strictly responsible for the acts of this irrepressible 
" knight-errant," and thus the king was constrained to oppose 
Garibaldi by force, although it would have been very much more 
to his mind to aid him in his enterprise. 

But events soon gave the coveted capital to the Italian govern 



692 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

ment. In 1870 came the sharp, quick war between France and 
Prussia, and the French troops at Rome were hastily summoned 
home. Upon the overthrow of the French Monarchy and the 
establishment of the Republic, Victor Emmanuel was informed 
that France would no longer sustain the Papal power. The Italian 
government at once gave notice to the Pope that Rome would 
henceforth be considered a portion of the kingdom of Italy, and 
forthwith an Italian army entered the city, which by a vote of 
133,681 to 1,507 joined itself to the Italian nation. 

The family was now complete. Rome was the capital of a free 
and united Italy. July 2, 1S71, Victor Emmanuel himself entered 
the city and took up his residence there. " It was a proud mo- 
ment for him when he saw the task of his life accomplished, and all 
Italy fully united under his scepter." 

End of the Temporal Power of the Pope. — The Pope pro- 
tested against this invasion of his dominions, this spoliation of the 
Father of the Church, and called upon the king of Prussia to be- 
come the defender of Rome, prophesying the upheaval and over- 
turning of everything in the world should the sacrilege be allowed. 
He would have Europe rush to the rescue of the sacred lands of 
the Pope's patrimony, as the continent arose when Turk profaned 
with his unhallowed presence the holy places of Palestine. But 
neither King William nor any other sovereign would have any- 
thing to do with Italian affairs. So, without a hand being raised in 
his defense, the Pope was stripped of every vestige of that tempo- 
ral power wherewith Pepin and Charlemagne had invested the 
Bishop of Rome more than a thousand years before. 

The Papal troops were disbanded, but the Pope, Pius IX., still 
retained all his spiritual authority, the Vatican with its 11,000 
chambers being reserved to him as a place of residence. Just 
a few months before the loss of his temporal sovereignty a great 
Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church had, by a 
solemn vote, proclaimed the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, which 
declares decrees of the Pope " on questions of faith and morals " 
to L be infallible. 



CONCLUSION. 

Conclusion. — The securing of Rome as the capital of Italy 
completed the work of the liberation and national organization of 

the Italian people. They now formed a great nation, independent 
of foreign masters and united among themselves. 

In the early part of the year 1878 Victor Emmanuel died, and 
his son came to the throne, with the title of Humbert I., the 
second king of Italy. 

Reform and progress have marked Italian affairs since the ei 
of 1870. The work of the ( rovernment, however, has been much im- 
peded by the opposition of the Tope and of the priests, by the inertia 
of stolid ignorance, and the deep moral degradation of the masses. 
— a consequence of long political servitude. Yet very much has 
been accomplished. The monastic establishments, numbering two 
hundred and forty, have been dissolved, and the larger part of their 
enormous possessions devoted to the support of a public system of 
education : brigandage has been suppressed, railways built, the 
Alps tunneled, the healthfulness of the Campagna and other dis- 
tricts increased by extensive systems of drainage, and thus regions 
long given over to desolation made habitable and productive ; while 
the naval and military resources of the peninsula have been devel- 
oped to such an extent that Italy, so recently the prey of foreign 
sovereigns, of petty native tyrants, and of adventurers, is now justly 
regarded as one of the prominent powers of Europe. 



694 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER X. 

ENGLAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The Three Chief Matters. — English history during the nine- 
teenth century embraces a multitude of events. A short chapter 
covering the entire period will possess no instructive value unless 
it reduces the heterogeneous mass of facts to some sort of unity 
by placing events in relation with their causes, and thus showing 
how they are connected with a few broad national movements or 
tendencies. 

Studying the period in this way, we shall find that very many of 
its leading events may be summed up under the three following 
heads: i. Progress towards democracy; 2. Expansion of w the 
principle of religious equality ; 3. Growth of the British Empire in 
the East. 1 

The political and religious tendencies mentioned have found 
expression in the legislative acts of Parliament, which have liberal- 
ized and broadened the English Constitution ; while the growth of 
England's interests and influence in Asia has been recorded 
in her wars and foreign policies, particularly in her jealous compe- 
tition with Russia. 

1 Two other lines of study, which also touch events of importance, are 
these : England's relations to Ireland, and the growth of the English colonies 
in the New World. 

The first topic would embrace such matters as the following : The union of 
the Legislatures of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801; the agitation under 
O'Connell for the Repeal of the Union; the Irish land tenure; the Home 
Rule movement, etc. 

The second would lead to the study of the spread of the English race in 
British America, in the West Indies, and in the South Pacific; to the investi- 
gation of the experiments of these colonies in federative government; to 
inquiries respecting their present and probable future relations to the mother- 
land, etc. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

We shall attempt nothing more in the following pages than to 
indicate the most prominent matters that should claim the 

student's attention along these several lines of inquiry. 

I. Progress towards Democracy. 

Introductory. — 'Hie English Revolution of iuS.s transferred 
authority from the king to the Parliament. The elective branch 
of that body, however, rested upon a very narrow electoral b 
Out of 5,000,000 Englishmen who should have had a voice in the 
government, not more than 160,000 were voters, and these were 
chiefly of the rich upper classes. The political democratize 
England during the present century consists in the widening of 
the electorate, — in the giving to every intelligent and honest man a 
right to vote, to participate in the government under which he lives. 

Effects of the French Revolution upon Liberalism in England. 
— Throughout the eighteenth century, under the Hanoverian 
sovereigns, 1 there was a certain but slow growth of Liberal principles. 
The Tories gradually renounced the untenable doctrine of the 
divine right of kings, 2 and acknowledged the sovereignty of Parlia- 
ment. But they retained their old political instincts. They faced 
the past. They deprecated change. They became the represen- 
tatives of Conservatism, and held themselves out as " the defenders 
of the Constitution and Church against the inroads of Liberalism." 

1 The sovereigns of the House of Hanover are George I. (1714-1727); 
George II. (1727-1760); George III. (1760-1820); George IV. (1S20-1S30); 
William IV. (1830-1S37); Victoria (1S37- )• 

2 The sentiment, however, was still strong enough, in connection with dis- 
content awakened by other causes, to lead to several attempts on the part of the 
Jacobites to place the exiled Stuarts upon the throne. In the year 171 5 there 
was an unsuccessful uprising in Scotland, under the Earl of Mar, in the 
interest of the son of James II.; and two years later there was another 
abortive plot, in which Charles XII. of Sweden was concerned. In 1745 the 
"Young Pretender" (grandson of James II.) landed in Scotland, effected a 
rising of the Scotch Highlanders, worsted the English at I 

marched upon London. Forced to retreat into Scotland, he was pursued by 
the English, and utterly defeated at the battle of Cttlloden Moor,— and the 
Stuart cause was ruined forever. 



696 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The Whigs, on the other hand, grew to be more and more 
distinctively the party of progress and reform, the champions of 
democratic principles. Having made the king dependent upon 
Parliament, they would now make Parliament dependent upon the 
people. Towards the close of the eighteenth century some of the 
leading Whig statesmen, notably William Pitt, began to urge reform 
in the electoral system. The French Revolution at first gave a 
fresh impulse to these Liberal tendencies. The English Liberals 
watched the course of the French republicans with the deepest 
interest and sympathy. It will be recalled how the statesman Fox 
rejoiced at the fall of the Bastile, and what auguries of hope he saw 
in the event. The young writers Coleridge, Wordsworth, and 
Southey were all infected with democratic sentiments, and inspired 
with a generous enthusiasm for political liberty and equality. 

But the wild excesses of the French Levelers terrified the English 
Liberals. There was a sudden revulsion of feeling. All sugges- 
tions of reform were looked upon with distrust. Liberal senti- 
ments were denounced as dangerous and revolutionary. "The 
great part of the people," says the constitutional historian May, 
" recoiled from the blood-thirsty Jacobins, and took part with the 
government in the repression of democracy." "There was a 
social ostracism of liberal opinion, which continued far into the 
present .century." 

Revival of Democratic Sentiments. — But England's rapid 
growth in wealth after the close of the Napoleonic wars, together 
with the growing enlightenment of the people, led to a wide-spread 
desire for political reform. The terrors of the French Revolution 
were forgotten. Liberal sentiments began to spread among the 
masses. The people very justly complained that, while the Eng- 
lish government claimed to be a government of the people, they 
had no part in it. 

Now, it is instructive to note the different ways in which Lib- 
eralism was dealt with by the English government and by the rulers 
on the continent. In the continental countries the rising spirit 
of democracy was met by cruel and despotic repressions. The 



THE REFORM OF 1832, 

people were denied by their rulers all participation in the affairs of 
government. We have seen the result. Liberalism triumphed in- 
deed at last, but triumphed only through Revolution. 

In England, the government did not resist the popular demands 
to the point of Revolution. It made timely concessions to the 
growing spirit of democracy. Hence here, instead 
revolutions, we have a series of reform measures, which, gradually 
popularizing the House of Commons, at last renders the English 
nation, not alone in name, but in reality, a self-governing pec 

The Reform Bill of 1832. — The first Parliamentary step in 
reform was taken in 1832. To understand this important a« t. a 
retrospective glance becomes necessary. 

When, in 1265, the Commons were first admitted to Parliament, 
members were called only from those cities and boroughs whose 
wealth and population fairly entitled them to representation. In 
the course of time some of these places dwindled in population, 
and new towns sprang up : yet the decayed boroughs retained their 
ancient privilege of sending members to Parliament, while the new 
towns were left entirely without representation. Thus ( Hd Sarum, 
an ancient town now utterly decayed and without a single inhabi- 
tant, was represented in the Commons by two members. Further- 
more, the sovereign, for the purpose of gaining influence in the 
Commons, had, from time to time, given unimportant places the 
right of returning members to the Lower House. In 1793 les> 
than 200 electors sent to the Commons 197 members. Of course, 
elections in these small or pocket boroughs, as they were called, 
were almost always determined by the corrupt influence of the 
crown or resident lords. The Lower House of Parliament was 
thus filled with the nominees of the king, or with persons who had 
bought the office, often with little effort at concealment. At this 
same time, such large, recently-grown manufacturing towns as 
Birmingham and Manchester had no representation at all in the 
Commons. 

Agitation was begun for the reform of this corrupt and farcical 
system of representation. The contest between the Whigs and 



698 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Tories, or Liberals and Conservatives, was long and bitter. The 
Conservatives of course opposed all reform. Bill after bill was 
introduced into Parliament to correct the evil, but most of these, 
after having passed the Commons, were lost in the House of Lords. 
Finally the public feeling became so strong and violent that the 
lords were forced to yield, and the Reform Bill of 1832 became a 
law. 

By this act the electoral system of the kingdom was radically 
changed. Fifty-six of the " rotten boroughs " were disfranchised, 
and the 143 seats in the Lower House which they had filled were 
given to different counties and large towns. The bill also greatly 
increased the number of electors by extending the right of voting 
to all persons owning or leasing property of a certain value. 

We can scarcely exaggerate the importance of this Reform Bill. 
It is the Magna Charta of political democracy. 1 

Chartism : the Revolutionary Year of 1848. — But while the 
Reform Bill of 1832 was almost revolutionary in the principle it 
established, it went only a little way in the application of the 
principle. It admitted to the franchise the middle classes only. 
The great laboring class were given no part in the government. 

1 The popularizing of the House of Commons led to a series of legislative 
acts of a popular character. Laws were made for the advantage of the many, 
not to confer special privileges upon a few. There now begins a period known 
as " the Era of Reform." 

In 1833 an act for the abolition of slavery throughout the British colonies 
became a law. 780,993 slaves in the British West Indies were freed at a cost 
to the English nation of ^20,000,000. The English people thus rejected for- 
ever what Lord Brougham, the most eloquent advocate of the act of emanci- 
pation, characterized as " the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold 
property in man." 

In 1840 an act of Parliament established the " Penny Postage System," 
which made the rate upon letters, hitherto unequal and oppressive, uniform 
throughout the United Kingdom. 

In 1846 England, by the repeal of her "corn-laws," abandoned the com- 
mercial policy of Protection, which favored the wealthier classes, and adopted 
that of free trade. The chief advocates of this important measure were Rich- 
ard Cobden and John Bright. 



THE REFORM BILL OP 1867. 

They now began an agitation, characterized by much bitten 

known as Chartism, from a document called the " People's Char- 
ter," which embodied the reforms they desired These were 

"universal suffrage, vote by ballot, annual parliaments, the division 
of the country into equal electoral districts, the abolition of the 
property qualification of members, and payment lor their servi 

The agitation for these changes in the constitution went on with 
more or less violence until 1848, in which year, encouraged by the 
revolutions then shaking almost every throne on the European 
continent, the Chartists resolved to make an effective demonstra- 
tion of their strength and the popularity of their cause. They 
assembled to the number of 20,000, with the intention of march- 
ing through the streets of London, with a huge petition, signe 
it was asserted, by 5,000,000 persons, which they proposed to 
carry into the House of Commons. Fearing a riot, the government 
took active measures to prevent the parade. The great ma 
the people, ever on the side of law and order, rallied to the sup- 
port of the government, nearly a quarter of a million of the men of 
London promptly responding to a call for special policemen. One 
of these conservators of the public peace was Louis Napoleon 
Bonaparte, then an exile in England, whom the upheavals of 
this very year were destined to elevate to the presidency of the 
French Republic. The Chartists were prevented from can 
out their plans, and their organization soon fell to pieces. The 
reforms, however, which they had labored to secure, were, in the 
main, desirable and just, and the most important of them have 
since been adopted and made a part of the English Constitution. 

The Reform Bill of 1867. —The Reform Bill of 1867 was sim- 
ply another step taken by the English government in the direction 
of the Reform Bill of 1832. Like that measure, it was passed only 
after long and violent agitation and discussion both without and 
within the walls of Parliament. Its main effect was the extension 
of the right of voting, — the enfranchisement of the great " fourth 
estate." By it also a few small boroughs in England — tor the bill 
did not concern either Ireland or Scotland, separate bills of some- 



700 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

what similar provisions being framed for them — were disfran- 
chised, and several new ones created. The towns of Manchester, 
Birmingham, and Leeds were each given a third representative in 
the Commons, and the University of London was given a seat in 
the House. 

The Reform Bill of 1884. — One of the conservative leaders, 
the Earl of Derby, in the discussions upon the Reform Bill of 1867, 
said, " No doubt we are making a great experiment, and taking a 
leap in the dark." Just seventeen years after the passage of that 
bill, the English people were ready to take another leap. But they 
were not now leaping in the dark. The wisdom and safety of 
admitting the lower classes to a participation in the government 
had been demonstrated. 

In 1884 Mr. Gladstone, then prime minister, introduced and 
pushed to a successful vote a new reform bill, more radical and 
sweeping in its provisions than any preceding one. It increased 
the number of voters from about 3,000,000 to about 5,000,000. 
The qualification of voters in the counties was made the same as 
that required of voters in the boroughs. Hence its effect was to 
enfranchise the great agricultural classes. A Redistribution Bill, 
which was passed in connection with the Reform Bill, rearranged 
the electoral districts in such manner that the Commons should 
more fairly represent the popular will. The number of members 
from the boroughs was lessened and the number from the counties 
increased. 

Referring to these extensive changes in the constitution of the 
House of Commons, the queen in proroguing the Parliament whose 
labors had effected them, used these words : " I earnestly trust 
that these comprehensive measures may increase the efficiency of 
Parliament, and may promote contentment among my people. . . . 
I pray the blessing of God may rest upon their extended liberties, 
and that the members who are called upon to exercise new powers 
will use them with that sobriety and discernment which have for so 
long a period marked the Liberty of this nation." 

The late elections (1885), held under the new system, have sent 
to the House of Commons many men of humble origin and calling. 



ONLY THE FORMS OF MONARCHY 'REMAIN, 






Only the Forms of Monarchy remain. — The English 

ment is now in reality as democratic as our nun. ( ml) the I 
of monarchy remain. It does not seem probable that these 
long withstand the encroachments of democracy. Hereditary 
privilege, as represented by the House of Lords and the Crown, is 
likely soon to be abolished. Even now every time the lords 
attempt to thwart the will of the Commons then linous 

threats of abolishing the Upper House. However long the tradi- 
tional conservatism of the English people in the matter of forms 
and ceremonies may preserve the Constitution against the inroads 
of Liberalism in this direction, it seems inevitable, that in time I 
monarchical and aristocratical forms, representing as they do an 
old order of things, should give way to purely republican institu- 
tions. 



II. Expansion of the Principle of Religious Equality. 

Religions Freedom and Religious Equality. — Alongside the 
political movement traced in the preceding section ran a similar 
one in the religious realm. This was a growing recognition by 
the English people of the true principle of religious toleration. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century there was in England 
religious freedom, but no religious equality. That is to say, 
might be a Catholic or dissenter, if he chose to be, without fear of 
persecution. Dissent from the Established Church was not 
unlawful. But one's being a dissenter disqualified him from hold- 
ing certain public offices. Where there exists such discrimination 
against any religious sect, or where any one sect is favor 
sustained by the government, there of course is no relig 
equality, although there may be religious freedom. Progress in 
this direction, then, will consist in the growth of a really tolerant 
spirit, which shall lead to the removal from Catholi stant 

dissenters, and Jews all civil disabilities, and the placing of all 
sects on an absolute equality before the law. This is but a i 
pletion of the work of the sixteenth and seventeenth cent ; 



702 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Methodism and its Effects upon Toleration. — One thing 
that helped to bring prominently forward the question of emanci- 
pating non-conformists from the civil disabilities under which they 
were placed, was the great religious movement known as Metho- 
dism, which during the latter part of the eighteenth and the 
beginning of the nineteenth century revolutionized the religious 
life of England. 1 By vastly increasing the body of Protestant 
dissenters, Methodism gave new strength to the agitation for the 
repeal of the laws which bore so heavily upon them. So now 
begins a series of legislative acts which made a more and more 
perfect application of the great principle of religious equality. We 
shall simply refer to two or three of the most important of these 
measures. 

Disabilities removed from Protestant Dissenters^ (i828ju___ 
— One of the earliest and most important of the acts of Parlia- 
ment in this century in recognition of the principle of religious 
equality, was the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, in so 
far as they bore upon Protestant dissenters. These were acts 
passed in the reign of Charles II. , which required every officer of a 
corporation, and all persons holding civil and military positions, 
to take certain oaths, and partake of the communion according to 

1 The leaders of the movement were George Whitefield (i 714-1770) and 
John Wesley (1 703-1 791). Such exhorters the world had not heard since 
the preachers of the Crusades. Whitefield became the leader of the Calvin- 
istic Methodists, and Wesley the founder of the sect known as Wesleyans. 
The Methodists at first had no thought of establishing a Church distinct from 
the Anglican, but simply aimed to form within the Established Church a 
society of earnest, devout laymen, somewhat like that of the Young Men's 
Christian Association in our present churches. Their enthusiasm, and their 
often extravagant manners, however, offended the staid, cold conservatism of 
the regular clergy, and they were finally constrained by petty persecution to 
go out from the established organization and form a Church of their own. 
This of course constituted them dissenters. "In 1801, the Wesleyans had 
825 chapels or places of worship; in 1851, they had the extraordinary num- 
ber of 11,007, w ^ tn sittings for 2,194,298 persons." — May's Constitutional 
History of England, Vol. II. p. 419. 



DISABILITIES REMOVED FROM THE CATH0L1 

the rites of the Anglican Church. It is true that these I 
not now strictly enforced, and that an annual indemnity 
a sort of relief to Protestant non-conformists. Nevertheless, the 

laws were invidious and vexatious, and the Protestant dissenters 
demanded their repeal. 

Those opposed to the repeal argued that the principle of religious 
toleration did not require it. They insisted that, where every one 
has perfect freedom of worship, it is no infringement of the princi- 
ple of toleration for the government to refuse to employ as a 
public servant one who dissents from the State Chun h. 

The result of the debate in Parliament was the repeal of such 
parts of the ancient acts as it was necessary to rescind in order 
to relieve Protestant dissenters, — that is, the provision requir- 
ing persons holding office to be communicants of the Anglican 
Church. 

Disabilities removed from the Catholics (1829). — The bill 
of 1828 gave no relief to Catholics. They were still excluded 
from Parliament and various civil offices by the declarations of 
belief and the oaths required of office-holders, — declarations and 
oaths which no good Catholic could conscientiously make. They 
now demanded that the same concessions be made them that had 
been granted Protestant dissenters. 

The ablest champion of Catholic emancipation was the eloquent 
Daniel O'Connell, an Irish patriot ; but the measure was also 
favored by many who did not commune with the Roman Catholic 
Church, but whom the growth qf a more liberal spirit in relig 
matters had led to perceive the injustice of the old laws. 

A threatened revolt on the part of the Irish Catholics hun 
the progress of what was known as the Catholic Emancipation 
^/through Parliament. This law opened all the offices of the 
kingdom, below the crown, — save those of Regent, of Lord 
Chancellor of England and Ireland, the \ < |f£g§Jg ot Ireland, 
and a few others, — to the Catholic subject, of the realm. 

But unhappily this act of toleration and justice had been too 
long delayed. "Thirty years of hope deferred, of right withheld. 



/?-. 




704 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

of discontent and agitation, had exasperated the Catholic popula- 
tion of Ireland against the English government. They had over- 
come their rulers ; and owing them no gratitude, were ripe for new 
disorders." 

Disabilities removed from the Jews. — The Jews were still 
laboring under all the disabilities which had now been removed 
from Protestant dissenters and Catholics. 

In 1845 an act was P asse d by Parliament which so changed the 
oath required for admission to corporate offices — the oath con- 
tained the words " on the faith of a Christian " — as to open them 
to Jews. 

In 1858, after a long and unseemly struggle, the House of Com- 
mons was opened to the long-proscribed race. The House of 
Lords still closes its doors against them. 

Disestablishment of the Irish Church (1869). — Thirty years 
fter the Catholic Emancipation Act, the English government took 
another great step in the direction of religious equality, by the 
disestablishment of the State Church in Ireland. 

The Irish have always and steadily refused to accept the relig- 
ion which their English conquerors have somehow felt constrained 
to try to force upon them. The vast majority of the people are 
to-day and ever have been Catholics ; yet up to the time where we 
have now arrived these Irish Catholics had been compelled to pay 
tithes and fees for the maintenance among them of the Anglican 
Church worship. Meanwhile their own churches, in which the great 
masses were instructed and care^i for spiritually, had to be kept 
up by voluntary contributions. The rank injustice in thus forcing 
the Irish Romanists to support a Church in which they not only 
did not believe, but which they regarded with special aversion and 
hatred as the symbol of their subjection and persecution, was per- 
ceived and declaimed against by many among the English them- 
selves. Thus Sidney Smith very justly said of it, " There is no 
abuse like it in all Europe, in all Asia, in all the discovered parts 
of Africa, and in all we have heard of Timbuctoo." The proposi- 
tion to do away with this grievance by the disestablishment of the 



STATE CHURCH IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 






State Church in Ireland was bitterly opposed by the I lonservatives, 
headed by Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli; but at length, after a 

memorable debate, the Liberals, under the lead of Bright and 
Gladstone, the latter then prime minister, carried the measure. 
This was in 1869, but the actual disestablishment was not to take 
place until the year [871, at which time the [rish Stat 
ceasing to exist as a state institution, became a five Episcopal 
Church. The historian May pronounces this '-the most important 
ecclesiastical matter since the Reformation." 

Proposed Disestablishment of the State Church in England and 
Scotland. — The perfect application of the principle of relig 
equality demands, in the opinion of many English Liberals, the dis- 
establishment of the State Church in England and Scotland. 1 
They feel that for the government to maintain any particular sc< t. 
is to give the State a monopoly in religion. They would have the 
churches of all denominations placed on an absolute equality. 
Especially in Scotland is the sentiment in favor of disestablish- 
ment very strong. In the late elections (1885) this question of 
disestablishment was virtually made one of the issues upon which 
the campaign was fought. Chamberlain, the representative of the 
Radical wing of the Liberal party, unhesitatingly declares that the 
time for universal disestablishment has come. Gladstone, while 
concluding that the line along which the English people have been 
moving will sooner or later bring them to disestablishment, seems 
inclined to the opinion that the times are not yet ripe for the 
measure. 

We should not fail here to notice how, by studying past events 
in their connection with great principles and tendencies, we are 
enabled to forecast the future, and to determine when we 
working in harmony with the great laws of the world. 

III. Growth of the British Empire i\ the East. 
The Clew to England's Foreign Policy in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury. — Seeking the main fact of modern English history. Pro- 
1 The Established Church in Scotland Is the Presbyterian. 



706 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

fessor Seeley l finds it in the expansion of England. He says, in 
substance, that the expansion of England in the New World and in 
Asia is the formula which sums up for England the history of the 
last three centuries. As the outgrowth of this extension into re- 
mote lands of English population or influence, England has come 
successively into sharp rivalry with three of the leading powers of 
Europe, her competitors in the field of colonization or in the race 
for empire. The seventeenth century stands out as an age of in- 
tense rivalry between England and Spain ; the eighteenth was a 
period of gigantic competition between England and France ; 
while the nineteenth has been an age of jealous rivalry between 
England and Russia. 

England triumphed over Spain and France ; it remains to be 
seen whether she will in like manner triumph over Russia. 

We have space simply to indicate how England's foreign policies 
and wars during the present century have grown out of her Eastern 
connections, and her fear of the overshadowing influence of the 
Colossus of the North. 

Rise of the English Power in India. — And first, we must say 
a word respecting the establishment of English authority in India. 

In the year 1600 Queen Elizabeth chartered an association of 
English merchants, under the name of the East India Company, 
for carrying on trade with India. The first factory established by 
the Company was at Surat (1612) ; by the close of the seventeenth 
century it had founded establishments at Bombay, Calcutta, and 
Madras, the three most important centres of English population 
and influence in India at the present time. 

In order to protect its factories and traders, the Company was 
obliged to build forts, and to maintain soldiers and ships of war, 

— privileges granted it by the English government. 

The Company's efforts to extend its authority in India were 
favored by the decayed state into which the Great Mogul Empire 

— founded in Northern India by the Tartar conquerors, and, un- 

1 J. R. Seeley, in his work entitled The Expansion of England. 



RISE OF THE ENGLISH POWER IN INDIA. 707 

der the great emperors Akbar and Aurungzebe, extended over a 
large part of the peninsula — had fallen, and by the conl 
the independent native princes among themselves ; just as I lortez 
and Pizarro were aided in their conquests of Mexi< o and Peru by 
the weakened and disorganized condition in which they chanced 
to find the empires of the Montezumas and the 1 

For a long time it was a matter of doubt whether the empire t i 
be erected upon the ruins of the Great Mogul Empire and of the 
contending native states should be French or English. About the 
middle of the eighteenth century the former had the foot- 

hold in the peninsula, just as previous to the French and Indian 
War in the New World they had the stronger hold upon the North 
American continent. 

Indeed, the French were entertaining hopes of driving out the 
English altogether, and of forming a French empire that should 
embrace the whole peninsula. The plans of the French were 
thwarted by the genius of Robert Clive, an officer in the employ 
of the English Company. Gaining victory after victory over the 
French and their native allies, he, in a few years, rendered the 
influence of the English supreme throughout Southeastern India. 

A terrible crime committed by the Nabob Surajah Dowlah of 
Bengal, a province lying along the lower courses of th 
determined the fate not only of that native state, but of all India. 
Moved by jealousy of the growing power of the English, and en- 
couraged by the French, the Nabob attacked the English post at 
Calcutta, and having induced the little garrison of 146 person 
surrender on the assurance that they should have no violence 
offered them, he crowded them all into a close dungeon, called 
the Black Hole. In the course of a sultry night the larger part of 
the uniOTraunate prisoners were suffocated. 

Clive, who was at Madras, responded instantly to the cry that 
arose for vengeance. With only 100 English soldiers and 2,000 
Sepoys, 1 he sailed for Calcutta. That capital was taken, and on 

1 The name given to native soldiers in European employ. 



708 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

the memorable field of Plassey the Nabob's army of over 60,000 
foot and horse was scattered to the winds (1757). 

The victory of Plassey established upon a firm basis the growing 
power of the Company. During the next one hundred years its 
armies, directed by some of the ablest generals of that period, — 
among whom were Lord Cornwallis, prominent in the American 
War for Independence, and Sir Arthur Wellesley, the conqueror of 
Napoleon, — subjugated and deposed, on various pretexts, one 
native prince after another, and brought province after province 
under the rule of the English, until the authority of the Company 
was recognized throughout almost every part of the peninsula, 
from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. A little company of 
traders, possessing in 1 6 1 2 a few warehouses guarded by a hand- 
ful of sentinels, had by 1850 grown into a body exercising almost 
imperial powers, maintaining an immense army, and ruling over as 
many subjects nearly as all the monarchs of Europe combined. 

There is no question but that in building up this gigantic Em- 
pire the East India Company was guilty of many wrong and utterly 
indefensible acts ; but we must bear in mind that the situation of 
these English traders in India was very like that of the English 
colonists in America : neither the conquest of the Asiatic Indians, 
nor the extermination of the American Indians, was the result of a 
deliberate plan ; the conquest and the extermination were both 
brought about, without deliberate purpose, by the pressure of 
events. 

We will now speak briefly of the most important wars and 
troubles in which England has been involved through her interests 
in India. 

The Afghan War of 1838-1842. —One of the first serious wars 
in which England was drawn through her jealousy of Russia was 
what was known as the Afghan War. 

It was England's policy to maintain the Afghan state as a barrier 
between her East India possessions and Russia. Persuaded that 
the ruler of the Afghans, a usurper named Dost Mahommed, was 
inclined to a Russian alliance, the English determined to dethrone 



OPIUM WAR WITH CHINA. 

him, and put in his place the legitimate prince. This n 

The Afghans, however, resented this interference in th< 

They arose in revolt, and forced the English army to retreat from 

the country. In the wild mountain passes leading from 

istan into India, the fleeing army, [ 6,000 in number, counting 

camp-followers, was cut off almost to a man. 

The English took signal vengeance. They again invaded the 
country, defeated the Afghans, punished some of theii 
burned the chief bazaar of Cabul, and then withdrawing from the 
country, left the Afghans to themselves. 

Opium War with China (1840-1842). — The next war in 
by British interest in India was the so-called ( Ipium War with 
China. 

During the first half of the present century the opium traffic 
between India and China grew into gigantic proportions, and be- 
came an important source of wealth to the British merchants, and 
of revenue to the Indian government. 

The Chinese government, however, awake to the enormous evils 
of the growing use of the narcotic, forbade the importation of the 
drug; but the British merchants, notwithstanding the im; 
prohibition, persisted in the trade, and chiefly through the corrupt 
connivance of the Chinese officials succeeded in smuggling 
quantities of the article into the Chinese market. Finally, the 
government seized and destroyed all the opium stored in the ware- 
houses of the British traders at Canton. This act, together with 
other "outrages," led to a declaration of war on the part of I 
land. British troops now took possession of( 'anion, and the Chinese 
government, whose troops were as helpless as children befon 
ropean soldiers, was soon forced to agree to the tre; 
by which the island of Hong-Kong was ceded to the 
several important ports were opened to British traders, and the 
perpetuation of the nefarious traffic in opium was secured. 
treaty also provided for the payment by the Chinese of an indem- 
nity of about $20,000,000, to cover the 1 by the British 
merchant:; in the destruction of their opium, and to defi.. 
penses of the war. 



710 FOURTH PERIOD. — ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Perhaps no act of the English government has caused so much 
censure to be cast upon it as this, in which at the cannon's mouth 
it forced open the ports of a helpless, half- civilized nation to a most 
abominable and pernicious traffic. 

The Crimean War (1854-1856). — Scarcely was the Opium 
War ended before England was involved in a gigantic struggle 
with Russia, — the Crimean War, already spoken of in connection 
with Russian history. From our present standpoint we can better 
understand why England threw herself into the conflict on the 
side of Turkey. She fought to maintain the integrity of the Otto- 
man Empire, in order that her own great rival, Russia, might be 
prevented from seizing Constantinople and the Bosphorus, and 
from that point controlling the affairs of Asia through the com- 
mand of the Eastern Mediterranean. 

The Sepoy Mutiny ('M^-l : ^§4) . — The echoes of the Crimean 
War had barely died away before England was startled by the 
most alarming intelligence from the country for the secure posses- 
sion of which English soldiers had borne their part in the fierce 
struggle before Sebastopol. 

In 1857 there broke out in the armies of the East India Com- 
pany what is known as the Sepoy Mutiny. The causes of the up- 
rising were various. The crowd of deposed princes was one ele- 
ment of discontent. A wide-spread conviction among the natives, 
awakened by different acts of the English, that their religion was 
in danger, in connection with an old prophecy of the Hindu 
soothsayers that just one hundred years from the battle of Plassey 
the English power in India would be overthrown, was another 
potent factor of the causes that led to the rebellion. There were 
also military grievances of which the native soldiers complained. 

The mutiny broke out in Bengal. At different points, by pre- 
concerted signals, the native regiments arose against their English 
officers and put them to death. 1 Delhi and Cawnpore 2 were 

1 The East India Company at this time had an army of nearly 300,000, of 
which number not more than 45,000 were English troops. The chief posi- 
tions in the native regiments were held by English officers. 

2 The atrocities committed by the Rebels at this place sent a thrill of hor- 



LATER A/7 ... 7| j 

seized, and the English residents and garrisons buto hcred in < old 

blood. 

Fortunately many of the native regiments stood firm in their 
allegiance to the English, and with their aid the revolt was s] 
ily crushed. The leaders were punished with great severity, many 
of them being executed by being blown from the mouths of 
cannon. 

At the close of the war, the government of India, by ai t of Par 
liament, was taken out of the hands of the East India Company 
and vested in the English crown. Since this transfer, the Indian 
government has been conducted on the principle that " English 
rule in India should be for India." l 

Later Events: the English in Egypt. — It only remains for us 
to refer to some later matters which are more or less intimately 
connected with England's Eastern policy. 

In 1874 Mr. Disraeli, who had then just succeeded Mr. (dad- 
stone as prime minister, in pursuance of an ambitious, foreign 
policy which aimed to give England a sort of imperial position 

ror through all the civilized world. Nana Sahib had slain the garrison, and 
crowded about two hundred English women and children, the families of the 
murdered soldiers, into a small chamber. They were spared the fate of the 
prisoners in the Black Hole of Calcutta, but only to meet a more terrible 
Fearing that the English forces, advancing by forced marches under General 
Henry Havelock, would effect a rescue of the prisoners, Nana Sahib employed 
five assassins, some of them butchers by trade, to go into the room with their 
swords and knives and kill them all. The work required two hours. Then 
the bodies were dragged out and flung into a neighboring well, 

1 Within the last two decades the country has undergone in ever 
surprising transformation. Life and property are now as secure in India 
England. The railways begun by the East India Company have been extended 
in every direction, and now bind together the most distant provinces of the 
empire. All the chief cities are united by telegraph. Lines of Si 
established on the Indus and the Ganges. Public schools have been opened, 
and colleges founded. Several hundred newspapers, about half published in 
the native dialects, are sowing Western ideas broadcast among the pi 
The introduction of European science and civilization is rapidly undermining 
many of the old superstitions, particularly the ancient system of caste. 



712 FOURTH PERIOD.— ERA OF THE REVOLUTION. 

upon two continents, purchased, for ^20,000,000, the 176,000 
shares which the Khedive of Egypt held in the Suez Canal. 
This was to give England more perfect control of this all-impor- 
tant gateway to her East India possessions. 

Two years later, in 1876, Disraeli took a second step in his im- 
perial policy. This was the bestowal, by act of Parliament, of the 
title of Empress of India upon the Queen. 1 The object of this 
was to dazzle the Indian subjects of the empire, and to persuade 
them that their Queen was in no way inferior to the Emperor of 
Russia. 

Still another part of Disraeli's foreign policy was the extension 
of English influence and authority in Afghanistan. The excuse 
for trespassing again upon the territory of the Afghans was the 
alleged necessity, created by the advance of Russia in Central 
Asia, of finding somewhere in Afghanistan a " scientific frontier " 
for the Indian Empire. The result of this aggressive policy was 
a sharp contest with the Afghans (1879-1880). Almost the first 
act of the drama was a massacre of British officers, like that 
of 1 84 1. The slaughter was avenged, and the country occupied 
with garrisons. Later, under a new Liberal administration, the 
English troops were withdrawn, and the scientific frontier aban- 
doned. 2 

In 1878, towards the close of the Russo-Turkish War, England, 
it will be recalled, interfered in behalf of the Turks, and, by the 
presence of her iron-clads in the Bosphorus, prevented the Rus- 

1 A few months later the Queen elevated Mr. Disraeli to the peerage, with 
the title of Earl of Beaconsfield. 

2 Disraeli's ambitious schemes embraced Africa as well as Asia. He pro- 
posed to consolidate the several English, Dutch, and native states in Southern 
Africa into a great South African Confederation. The outcome of this 
scheme was a war with the Boers, the Dutch settlers of the Transvaal Repub- 
lic, numbering about 40,000; also a war with the Zulus, the most powerful 
native tribe in South Africa, whose king at this time was Cetewayo. The 
Zulu war was invested with a sort of tragic interest by the death at the 
hands of the natives of the Prince Louis Napoleon, who, an exile from 
France, had attached himself to the staff of the English commander. 



LATER EVE 

sians from occupying Constantinople. In the treat) negotiations 
which followed, in which Lord Disraeli played a somew 
malic part, England, by virtue of a secret arrangement with the 
Sublime Porte, received from Turkey the island of Cyprus, in 

return for promised aid in the future in case of need. 

In the year 1882 political and financial reas , me d led 

the English government, now conducted by Gladstone, to int< 
in the affairs of Egypt. A mutinous uprising against the authority 
of the Khedive having taken place in the Egyptian army, an ex- 
pedition was sent out under the command of Lord Wolsele) for the 
purpose of suppressing the revolt, and by the restoration of the 
authority of the Khedive to render secure the Sue/ Canal, and pro- 
tect the interest of English bondholders in Egyptian - 

Three years later, in 1885, a second expedition had to be sent 
out to the same country. The Soudanese, subjects of the Khe- 
dive, encouraged by the disorganized condition of the Egyptian 
government, had revolted, and were threatening the Egyptian 
risons in the Soudan with destruction. Lord Wolseley was sent 
out a second time, to lead an expedition up the Nile to the relief 
of Khartoum, where General Gordon, a representative of the 
English government, was commanding the Egyptian troops, and 
trying — to use his own phrase — to " smash the Mahdi," the 
military prophet and leader of the Soudanese Arabs. 

The expedition arrived too late, Khartoum having fallen just be- 
fore the advance relief party reached the town. The English 
troops were now recalled, and the greater part of the Soudan 
abandoned to the rebel Arabs. Further complication, 
likely to grow out of England's presence in Egypt. 






■H 






CONCLUSION : THE NEW AGE. 



ve^L 



The Age of Material Progress, or the Industrial Age. — 

History has been well likened to a grand dissolving view. While 
one age is passing away another is coming into prominence. 

During the last fifty years the distinctive features of society have 
wholly changed. The battles now being waged in the religious 
and political world are only faint echoes of the great battles of the 
sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. A new move- 
ment of human society has begun. Civilization has entered upon 
what may be called the Industrial Age, or the Age of Material 
Progress. 

The decade between 1830 and 1840 was, in the phrase of 
Herzog, " the cradle of the new epoch." In that decade several 
of the greatest inventions that have marked human progress were 
first brought to practical perfection. Prominent among these 
were ocean steam navigation, railroads, and telegraphs. 2 In the 
year 1830 Stephenson exhibited the first really successful locomo- 
tive. In 1836 Morse perfected the telegraph. In 1838 ocean 
steamship navigation was first practically solved. 

The rapidity with which these inventions have been introduced 
into almost all parts of the world, partakes of the marvelous. 

1 For the facts which we give under this head we are indebted chiefly to 
Mulhall's Balance-Sheet of the World, and his Progress of the World; Ely's 
French and German Socialism in Modem Times ; Laveleye's The Socialism 
of To-day; and an article on Railroads, Telegraphs, and Civilizatio)i, by 
Herr C. Herzog, in the " Popular Science Monthly " for July, 18S5. 

2 Ploetz, in his Epitome of History, pp. 485-487, instructively compares 
these inventions to the three great inventions or discoveries — the magnetic 
needle, gunpowder, and printing — that ushered in the Modern Age. 



/ * 



THE ACE OF MATERIAL PROGRESS. ;;-, 

During the last fifty years the continents have been covered with 
a perfect network of railroads, constructed at an en. 

labor and capital. The aggregate length of the world's steam 
ways in 18S3 was about 275,000 miles, sufficient, to use Mul 
illustration, to girdle the earth eleven times at the equator, or more 
than sufficient to reach from the earth to the moon. The 
tinental lines of railways are made virtually continuous round 
world by connecting lines of ocean steamers. Telegraph wires 
traverse the continents in all directions, and cables run ben 
all the oceans of the globe. In 1883 there were nearl 
miles of telegraph lines; and about 700 marine cables, wil 
aggregate length of 97,000 miles, although the first successful 
ocean cable was not laid until 1866. 

By these inventions the most remote parts of the earth have 
been brought near together. A solidarity of commercial int< 
has been created. Thought has been made virtually omnipresent : 
a new and helpful idea or discovery becomes immediately the 
common possession of the world. Facilities for travel, by bringing 
men together, and familiarizing them with new scenes and different 
forms of society and belief, have made them more liberal and 
tolerant. Mind has been broadened and quickened. And by the 
virtual annihilation of time and space, governmental problems 
have been solved. The chief difficulties in maintaining a con- 
federation of states widely separated have been removed, and 
such extended territories as those of the United Slates 1 
practically as compact as the most closely consolidated European 
state. England, with her scattered colonies, may now. Pro! 
Seeley thinks, well enough become a World- Venice, with the 
oceans for streets. Furthermore, the steps of human progress have 
been accelerated a hundred-fold. The work of years, and <»! 
centuries even, is crowded into a day. Thus Japan, on the 
skirts of the world, has been modified more by our civili. 
within the last decade or two. than Britain was modified b 
civilization of Rome during the four hundred year., that the i 
was connected with the Empire. 



716 CONCL USION. — THE NE W A GE. 

But a still more important feature of the new epoch is the use 
of steam and machinery in the manufactures and various industries 
of the world. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the 
great manufactures of the world were in their infancy. Under the 
impulse of modern inventions they have been carried to seeming 
perfection at a bound. Steam and improved machinery have in- 
creased incalculably the productive forces of society. More articles 
contributive to human well-being can now be manufactured in a 
single day than were produced in fifty or one hundred days at 
the opening of the century. This enormous augmentation of the 
power of production is the most significant feature of the age, 
and the one, as we shall see in a moment, that creates and gives 
distinctive character to its chief problem. 

The history of this wonderful age, so different from any preced- 
ing age, cannot yet be written, for no one can tell whether the 
epoch is just opening or is already well advanced. It may well 
be that we have already seen the greatest surprises of the age, and 
that the epoch is nearing its culmination, 1 and that other than 
material development — let us hope intellectual and moral 
developments — will characterize future epochs. 

The Lahor Problem. — Now this great expansion of civilization 
on its material side has most profoundly affected the social and 
economic order of the world, and has brought prominently forward 
for solution questions more perplexing and momentous than any 
that have agitated past epochs of history. 

Beyond controversy the central problem of the epoch, and one 
involving many others, is the so-called Labor Problem. This, 
plainly stated, is, How are the products of the world's industry to 
be equitably distributed? 

1 " It is probable," says Professor Ely, " that as we, after more than two 
thousand years, look back upon the time of Pericles with wonder and astonish- 
ment, as an epoch great in art and literature, posterity two thousand years 
hence will regard our era as funning an admirable and unparalleled epoch 
in the history of industrial invention." — French and German Socialism in 
Modern Times. 



THE LABOR PROBLEM. 

The condition of modern industrial society is this: Through 

the employment of the forces of nature and the use of impi 
machinery, '•economic goods." that is, products promotivi 
physical well-being, can be produced in almost unlimited quan- 
tities. But this increase in society's productive \ 
brought little or no augmentation of material comforts to the 
laboring classes. Owing to some defect in our industri 
capital secures a disproportionate share of the economic pro< 
The rich grow richer, while the poor grow comparatively pi 
Great monopolies are created, and colossal fortunes am 
while the laborers for wages become more and more pauperized. 
and consequently sink into an ever lower intellectual and moral 
degradation. This inequitable distribution of material well-' 
is creating everywhere the most dangerous discontent among the 
laboring classes, — as indicated by labor strikes, and by the 
promulgation of wild communistic schemes for the violent i 
throw of all existing social institutions, — and is awakening among 
philanthropists and statesmen the greatest solicitude and appre- 
hension. 

Now, the student of the last two epochs of history will not fail 
to note that this labor problem bears exactly the same relation to 
industrial society that the old religious and political questions bore 
to the Church and the State. The great problem of the fust era 
was the proper distribution of authority in religious matters ; that 
of the second era was the distribution of power in the State ; that 
of this new epoch is the equitable distribution of the prodm 
industry. 

The establishment of religious and political equality has led to 
demands for social and economic equality. The democratizing 
of Church and State has rendered inevitable, it is urged, the 
democratizing of property. but it should be carefully I 
that democracy in wealth docs not mean communism — which 
denies individual rights in property — anymore than d 
in religion means atheism, or democracy in politics anarchy. It 
simply looks to such a reform or reorganization of the present 



718 CONCL USION. — THE NE W A GE. 

social and economic system as shall prevent capital from establish- 
ing a new tyranny in the world, and shall secure to every man 
an equitable proportion of the material goods which his labor helps 
to create, or " an apportionment of well-being according to labor 
performed." 

Socialism. — It only remains for us to mention some of the 
socialistic plans for the reorganization of industrial society, to 
which the evils and inequalities of the present system have given 
rise. We must first, however, get a correct idea of what socialism 
really is. " The distinctive idea of socialism," says Professor Ely, 
"is distributive justice. It goes back of the processes of modern 
life to the fact that he who does not work, lives on the labor of 
others. It aims to distribute economic goods according to the 
services rendered by the recipient." 

Socialists believe that the present industrial system is so radically 
wrong that it cannot by any amount of reform be made to work 
equitably. Consequently they would, by gradual measures, replace 
it by a wholly new economic system. The two most practicable 
schemes yet presented for the reorganization ' of society upon a 
socialistic basis are what are known as State Socialism and 
Christian Socialism. 

State or political socialists would supersede the present wasteful, 
harsh system of competition, whose maxim is the survival of the 
strongest, by the gradual extension of the functions of government. 
The following quotation will put the plan clearly before us : 
"Wagner 1 believes " — we again quote Professor Ely — "that he has 
discovered a law according to which the functions of govern- 
ment are constantly increasing in many places, even in spite of 
theory. According to him, government in all civilized countries 
is uninterruptedly taking upon itself new duties. The post-office, 
education, the telegraph, railroads, and the care of forests are 
examples. The increase in state business in England, e.g., may 
be seen from the fact that the expenses of government were forty 

1 Adolf Wagner, professor in Berlin, one of the ablest advocates of state 
socialism. 



SOCIALISM. 719 

times as great in 1841 as in 1685, although the population had 
little more than trebled its numbers. If it can be shown that 
Wagner's theory is really a law, and that the apparent proofs of it 
are not merely temporary social phenomena, it will at oik 
admitted that it is of the highest importance. Its operation would, 
of itself, establish the socialistic state, since, if government 1 
tinually absorbs private business, there will, in the end. be only 
state business. ... At present things are moving pretty rapidly 
in Germany towards the accomplishment of Wagner's ideal, if we 
may suppose that expressed by his law." ] 

Christian socialists would correct the evils and wrongs of the 
present social and economic system by the application to them of 
the principles of Christianity. Now Christianity is essentially 
socialistic. It condemns individualism. It teaches fraternity. It 
forbids one to pursue his individual interests at the expense of 
another. It enjoins every one to look, not on his own things, but 
also on the things of others. Hence Christian socialists — and here 
they are in perfect accord with state socialists — maintain that 
political economists in making self-interest the basis of the science 
of production and exchange, are founding the whole industrial order 
of the world upon a distinctively anti-Christian principle ; and that 
by thus framing self-interest into a system, and, as it were, sanctify- 
ing it, the moral sense of men is dulled, the selfish tendenci< 
human nature made more pronounced, business divorced from 
Christianity, and the moral elevation and improvement of humanity 
rendered more difficult and practically impossible. 

Therefore, in place of competition they would substitute 
operation. The distributive cooperative associations in the N 
of England, which now number several thousand, with property 
ao-rrreaatins many millions, are pointed to as evidence of the prac- 
ticability of the reorganization of society upon a sociah- 
All that is needed is that the principle be extended to the pro, 
of production as well as to those of distribution. The nur. 
building and loan associations among us, which are essentially 

1 French and German Socialism, pp. 242, 



720^ CONCL USION. — 7'IIE NE IV A GE. 

socialistic in principle, are a further illustration of the progress 
which the idea is making, and additional evidence of the practi- 
cability and advantages of the system. 

Now, both these schemes for the reorganization of the social 
and economic system, not only have the same aim, namely, the 
more equitable distribution of physical well-being, but are also 
closely allied in method. Both propose to secure the end in view 
through the substitution of industrial cooperation for the present 
harsh system of competition ; only to effect the change political 
socialists invoke the aid of the State, while Christian socialists look 
to the Church and to voluntary association. Both systems, and 
particularly that of voluntary cooperation, depend for success 
upon the intellectual and moral development of society, and above 
all, upon the growth of the Christian sentiment of the brotherhood 
of man. Dr. Lyman Abbott, in urging on the upper classes the 
claims upon them of the laborers for wages, — the great " disin- 
herited fourth estate," the toiling masses who are now shut out 
from a just participation in the blessings of our modern civilization, 
— and in presenting further the relations of the Church to this 
great question of the age, very truthfully says : " Nothing else can 
solve it [the labor problem] than the application of the principles 
of Christianity to industrial organization, as they have already been 
applied to political and ecclesiastical organization; and as they 
have revolutionized the State and the Church, so they must 
revolutionize industrial society." 

There are already indications of a coalescence between these 
movements in State and Church, which may result in the creation 
of a new social and industrial system, just as Roman forms and 
Teutonic ideas combined to form the feudal system of the 
mediaeval ages. In such case, the State, " even now the highest 
and most majestic of cooperative associations," would constitute the 
model upon which the complete organization of society would be 
framed, and the Church would contribute the inspiring spirit. 
Thus would be reached the ideal Christian State, which would 
rest upon justice, liberty, and equality, and be pervaded by the 
sentiment of the brotherhood of man. 



INDEX, 



Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), 114. 

Abbassides, beginning of dynasty of 
the, 100, ioi; empire of the, 101, 
102; culture of the, 105. 

Abdallah, caliph, 101. 

Abdelrahman, emir, 102; caliph, 102, 
note. 

Abderrahman, Arab chief, 99, 100. 

Abelard, Peter, 264. 

Abubekr, first caliph, 85, 86. 

Abukir, battle at, 628. 

Acre, siege of, by Saracens, 20", 206; 
by Napoleon, 62S, 629. 

Addison, Joseph, 547. 

Adrianople, peace of, 658. 

Afghan, war of 1 838-1 842, 70S, 
of 1 879-1 880, 712. 

Africa (North), conquest of, by the 
Arabs, 94; lost to European civili- 
zation, 95. 

Agincourt, battle of, 294. 

Akbar, Arab leader, 94. 

Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty of, 494, 574. 

Albertus Magnus, 266. 

Albigenses, 306, 307. 

Alexander I., czar, 656-658 ; IT., 
662-664; his assassination, 667 ; 
III., 667. 

Alexandria captured by the Sara- 
cens, 91, 92. 

Alexandrian Library, 91. 

Alexius Comnenus 1., Creek emp., 
asks aid of the Latins against the 
Turks, 1S4; his treachery, 193, 1 



Alfred the Great, k. <>{ England, 

1 25-1 

Algiers, 38 |. 

Ali, mentioned, 85; becomes the 
fourth caliph, 92; I 
tion, 93. 

Almansor, caliph, 101. 

Alsace, ceded to the < >erman Empire, 
654. 

Alva, d. of, 443-446. 

Amboise, conspiracy of. 

Ambrosias, 24. 

America, discovery of, by the North- 
men, 121; by Columbus, 351, 352. 

Amiens, peace of, 634. 

Amrou, 90, 91, 93. 

Amurath I., 121. 

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 

Anglo-Saxons, their conquest of Bri- 
tain, 23-26; conversion, 
pagan and Christian literature o{, 
3j, 38; effects of conversioi 

Angora, battle of, 24 2. 

Anne of Austria, regent, 491. 

Anne Boleyn, 408, 414. 

Anne, queen <.f England, 545, 

Antioch, destroyed by earthquake, 
70 ; captured by the crusad. • 

Aquinas, Th 

Arabs. See Saracens and 
( >rigin and character, 77: n 
condition before Mohamm< 
78; spread ^( their religion and 
language. 1 03, 104. 



r22 



INDEX. 



Aragon, 317, 318. 

Archangel, port of, 550. 

Armada, Invincible, 431-433. 

Art, Grseco-Roman, influence of, 
upon the Middle Ages, 7. 

Arthur, King, 25. 

Ascalon, battle of, 200. 

Athens, schools of, closed by Justi- 
nian, 68, 69. 

Auerstadt, battle of, 639. 

Augsburg, diet of, 386, 387; religious 
peace of, 392; confession of, 392, 
note. 

Augustine, his mission to Britain, 31, 

32- 

Augustus the Strong, elector of Sax- 
ony* 55 8 > 559, 5 6 °- 

Austerlitz, battle of, 638. 

Austrasia, 23. 

Austria, comes into the hands of the 
Hapsburgs, 334; dukes of, and the 
Swiss League, 334~33 6 - 

Austria, house of, Germany under, 
337-340. 

Austrian succession, war of, 572-574. 

Austro-Prussian War, 674, 675. 

Austro-Sardinian War, 688, 689. 

Avars, devastate the Greek Empire, 

7 1 - 

Avignon, seat of papacy, 230, 231. 

Azof, conquest of, 554. 
Aztecs, 356, 357. 

Bacon, Francis, 436, 510, 511. 

Bacon, Roger, 266. 

Bagdad, founding of, 101; under the 

Abbassides, ib. 
Bailly, French statesman, 585, 586. 
Bajazet, 241, 242. 
Balboa, 356. 
Balliol, John, Scottish king, 286. 



Bannockburn, battle of, 288, 289. 
Barebone's Parliament, 525, 526. 
Barnet, battle of, 297. 
Barthelemy, ordeal of, 195, 196. 
Bastile, storming of the, 587, 588. 
Batavian Republic, established, 620; 
changed into kingdom of Holland, 

(>37- 

Bayard, Chevalier, 385. 

Bedouins, 77. 

B e gg ni g Friars. See Mendicant 
Friars. 

Belgium, revolution in, 652. 

Belisarius, 61-66. 

Bender, 562. 

Benedictines, order of the, 45, 46. 

Benevolences, 403, 404. 

Bengal, 707. 

Beowulf, poem of, 37. 

Berlin decree, 640. 

Berlin, treaty of (1878), 665, 666. 

Bismarck, Otto von, 675. 

Black Death, 293. 

Black Hole of Calcutta, 707. 

Black Prince, 291, 293. 

Blenheim, battle of, 499. 

Bloody Assizes, 535, note. 

Boccaccio, 270. 

Boers, 712, note. 

Bohemia, beginning of the Thirty 
Years' War in, 475, 476. 

Boleyn, Anne, 408, 414. 

Bonaparte, Jerome, 640. 

Bonaparte, Joseph, 641. 

Bonaparte, Louis, 642. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, defends the 
Convention, 620, 621; in Italy, 
622-625; in Egypt, 627-629; over- 
throws the Directory, 629-631 ; 
secret of his power, 631: First 
Consul, 632-635; Code Napoleon, 



INDEX. 






634, 635; other great works, ib.; 
made consul for life, 635; pro- 
claimed emperor, 636; his second 
marriage, 642, 643; at the summit 
of his power, 643; first abdication, 
647; second abdication, 650; his 
death, ib. 

Borodino, battle of, 645. 

Bosnia, 665, 666. 

Bosworth Field, battle of, 297. 

Bothwell, earl of, 429. 

Boulogne, 638. 

Bourbon, constable of, 385. 

Bourbon, house of, in Huguenot 
Wars, 460, 461, 463: Henry IV., 
k. of France, 467, 468. For other 
kings of this family, see Louis. 

Boyne, battle of the, 543, 544. 

Bradshaw, John, 521. 

Brandenburg, mark of, 568; the 
Great Elector, Frederick William, 
568; electors of, acquire the 
kingly title, 569. 

Bretigny, treaty of, 294. 

Britain. See England. Anglo-Saxon 
conquest of, 23. 

Brittany, asylum of Britons, 25, note. 

Bruce, Robert, k. of Scotland, 287, 289. 

Buddha, 43. 

Bulgaria, 655, 666. 

Bulgarians, conversion of, 31. 

Bunyan, John, 529, 530. 

Burgundians, impede march of the 
Ostrogoths, 14; kingdom of, 16; 
conversion of, 30, 31. 

Burgundy, dukes of, and the Nether- 
lands, 438. 

Burgundy, kingdom of, joined to the 
II. R. E., 327. 

Butler, Samuel, 540. 

Byron, Lord, 658, note. 



Caaba, 

< 'abot, John, 404. 

. legend 

of, ib., n 
Cairo, founding of, 102. 
Calais, captured by the 1 

: lost, 423. 
Caliphate of . established, 

101 ; golden age of, ib.; dismem- 
berment of, 101-102. 
Caliphate of ( lordova, 102. 
Calixtinians, 
Calmar, union of, 348. 
Calvin, 373. 

Cambray, Ladies' Peace of, 386. 
Campo Formio, treaty of, 626. 
Cannon, first used in open battle, 292. 
Canterbury, ^^. 

Canute, k. of England, 131, 132. 
Capetians. See France. Capetian 

kings, 304. 
Carbonari, 682, 6S4. 
Carloman, k. of Franks, no. 
Carlstadt, 371. 
Carolingian family, beginning of, 109; 

its extinction, 117; the h 

Germany, 322. 323. 
Carrier, 617, 618. 
Carthage, capital of Vandal kingdom. 

17; destroyed by the Arabs, 
Castile, union with 
Cateau-Cambr£sis, treat] 
Cathedral-building, 
Catherine the Great, of 

Catholic Emancipation Act, 7 
Cavour, Count, 668; his 

691. 
Cawnpore, 710. note. 

1. William, 302, 303. 
Cecil, William, 420. 



724 



INDEX. 



Cenobites, 43-46. 

Celts, position of, at opening of the 
Middle Ages, 1 1 ; in the British 
Isles, 23-25 ; Christianity among, 
33—37 ; conversion of Irish Celts 
by St. Patrick, 34. 

Ceuta, 97. 

Charlemagne, k. of the Franks, 1 10- 
116; restores the Empire in the 
West, 111-114; his character and 
work, 114, 115; division of his 
dominions, 1 1 6. 

Charles, archd. of Austria. 499. 

Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria, 

573- 
Charles the Bold, d. of Burgundy, 

3ii- 

Charles I., k. of England, 511-521; 

II-, 530-535- 
Charles III., k. of France, 134; VII., 

294, 295; VIII., 310-313; IX., 

464, 465. 
Charles V., emp. FI. R. E., reign, 

382-394; his cloister life, 392-394; 

his will, 394. 
Charles Albert, k. of Sardinia, 686. 
Charles II., k. of Spain, 498. 
Charles XII., k. of Sweden, 558-562. 
Charles Martel, mentioned, 21; at 

battle of Tours, 1 00; dies without 

royal title, 108. 
Chartism, 69S, 699. 
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 300, 301. 
Chaumette, 611. 
Chilperic, last of the Merovingians, 

109. 
China, Opium War, 709, 710. 
Chivalry, origin of, 161, 162; its 

universality, 162, 163; training of 

the knight, 163; ceremony of 

knighting, 163, 164; the tourna- 



ment, 164, 165; character of the 
knight, 166; influence of, 167, 168. 

Chosroes II., k. of Persia, 70-74; 
Mohammed's embassy to, 81, 82; 
palace of, sacked by the Arabs, 88, 
89. 

Christian of Anhalt, 476, 477, 478. 

Christian IV., k. of Denmark, 476, 478. 

Christianity, influence of, 7, 47, 4S ; 
introduced among the Teutonic 
tribes, 28-43; progress of, before 
the fall of Rome, 28; abolition of, 
by French revolutionists, 610, 612. 

Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, 128, note. 

Cid, poem of the, 321. 

Cisalpine Republic, proclaimed, 626; 
abolished, 630; restored, 634; 
changed into kingdom of Italy, 637. 

Clermont, council of, 184-187. 

Clive, Robert, 707. 

Clovis, k. of the Franks, 18-20; his 
conversion, 31. 

Code Napoleon, 634, 635. 

Codes, Teutonic, 54. 

Colbert, 492, 493. 

Coleridge, 696. 

Colet, 401. 

Coligny, admiral, 461; assassinated, 

465- 
Columbus, 320, 321 ; his first voyage, 

3$h 35 2 - 

Commission, High, 513. 

Commons, House of, origin, 281-283. 
See Reform Bill. 

Conrad III., emp. H. R. E., 203, 204. 

Conradin, last of Hohenstaufen fam- 
ily, 329, note. 

Constance, council of, 231. 

Constance, treaty of, 248. 

Constantine XL, last Greek emperor, 
242. 



INDEX. 






Constantinople, besieged by the 
Arabs, 95, 96; captured by the 
Latins, 20S; falls before the Turks, 
242, 243. 

Continental System of Napoleon, 641, 
642. 

Conventicle Act, 531. 

Corday, Charlotte, 604-606. 

Cordeliers, origin of club, 592. 

Cordova, 102. 

Corneille, 502. 

Corn laws, repealed, 698. 

Cortez, Hernando, 356-359. 

Council of the North, 513, 515. 

Covenanters, 514, 515, 531, 532. 

Cranmer, Thomas, 409, 41 1; his 
death, 421, 422. 

Crecy, battle of, 291. 

Crespy, peace of, 389. 

Crimea, conquered by Catherine the 
Great, 566. 

Crimean War, 660-662, 710. 

Cromwell, Oliver, his Ironsides, 517; 
ejects the Long Parliament, 523, 
524; his ambition, 524; Lord Pro- 
tector, 526, 527; death, 527. 

Cromwell, Richard, 527, 528. 

Cromwell, Thomas, 410, 412. 

Crusades. See Table of Contents. 
Enumerated, 179; holy places and 
pilgrimages, 179-181; causes of, 
181-183; Peter the Hermit, 183, 
184; Councils of Placentia and 
Clermont, 1 85-187; why crusades 
ceased, 217; evils of, 217, 218; 
good results of, 218-221. 

Ctesiphon, 88. 

Culloden Moor, battle of, 695, note. 

Curfew-bell, 176. 

Customs Union, 671. 

Cyprus, ceded to England, 713. 



Damascus, captured by the An 

Danelagh, 1 [9. 

Danes. Sit Scandinavians. 

1 'ante Alighieri, 

Dark Ages, characteristi 
norance during the, 5 

1 >arnley, Lord, 429. 

Defoe, Daniel, 548. 

Desiderius, 1.. of the Lombards, de- 
posed by Charlemagne, no. 

Diana of Poitiers, 450. 

Disestablishment of the Irish Church, 
704, 705; proposed d. 1 I 
Church in England and Scotland, 
705- 

Disraeli, 711; mad l<acons- 

field, 712, note; his imperial 
policy, 71 1-7 13. 

Dissenters, Protestant, civil disabili- 
ties removed from, 702, 703. 

Divine Right of kings, doctrine of the, 
490, 491; upheld by the Stuarts, 
505; related to superstition of the 
royal touch, 505, 506; dies out in 
England, 695. 

Domesday Book, 175, 176. 

Donation of Constantine, 14J. 

Dorykeum, battle of, 194. 

Dragonnades, 496, 

Drake, Sir Francis, 432, 

Drogheda, massacre of garrison, 5 2 2. 

Dryden, John, 540. 

Dunbar, battle of, 522. 

1 luns ScotUS, 263. 

Dutch Republic. See Nether 1 

East India Company. Sec /. 
Eastern Empire, relations to tl 

tonic chiefs, 

defens ' at the 

accession of Heraclius 



726 



INDEX. 



comes Greek, 75; names of, 75, 
note; 113, note; end of, 243. 

Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 143, 144. 

Ecclesiastical Reservation, 392, 473. 

Edda, poetic and prose, 122. 

Edessa, taken by the Turks, 202. 

Edmund Ironsides, 131. 

Edward the Confessor, k. of England, 

nz- 

Edward I., k. of England, his con- 
quest of Wales, 283, 284; his wars 
with Scotland, 284, 288; his death, 
288; III., claims the French 
crown, 290 ; his wars with France, 
290-294; VI., reign, 417-419. 

Egbert, k. of Wessex, 26. 

Egypt, conquest of, by the Saracens, 
89-92; Napoleon in, 627, 628; 
English in, 713. 

Elba, 647. 

Electors of the H. R. E., 332. 

Elizabeth, q. of England, reign, 424- 

434- 

Empire, Roman, remembrance of, 6. 

Encyclopedists, the, 581, 582. 

Enghien, d. of, 635. 

England, origin of the name, 25 ; 
Anglo-Saxon conquest of, 23; 
reign of Alfred the Great, 125-129; 
Danish conquest and rule, 129- 
132; Saxon line restored, 132; 
Norman Conquest, 1 71-178; Plan- 
tagenet period, 278-299; wars 
with Scotland, 284-290; the Hun- 
dred Years' War, 290-296; the 
Tudor period, 400-436; the Revo- 
lution of 1688, 536-539; parlia- 
mentary union of England and 
Scotland, 545, 546; history of, in 
the nineteenth century, 694-713. 
See Table of Contents. 



1 English language, growth of, 299. 

Erasmus, 401. 

Erigena, John Scotus, 263. 

Escurial, 396, note. 

Essex, earl of (Elizabeth's favorite), 
434, note. 

Essex, earl of (son of the preced- 
ing), 5 l8 - 

Ethelbert, k. of Kent, 32. 

Ethelred II. the Redeless, 129, 130. 

Euric, k. of the Visigoths, 16. 

Excommunication, 224. 

Eylau, battle of, 640. 

Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 518. 

False Decretals, 142, 143. 

Fatimites, 102. 

Faustus, legend of, 273, note. 

Fawkes, Guy, 507. 

Ferdinand of Aragon, 317, 321. 

Ferdinand I., emp. H. R. E,, 474; 
II., emp. H. R. E., 475, 47S; III., 
emp. H. R. E., 485. 

Feudalism, defined, 147; subinfeuda- 
tion, ib.; the ideal system, 148; 
Roman and Teutonic elements in, 
149, 150; origin of fiefs, 150, 151 ; 
origin of the feudal patronage, 151, 
152; origin of the feudal sov- 
ereignty, 152; ceremony of hom- 
age, 152; relation of lord and vas- 
sal, — reliefs, fines, aids, etc., 153, 
154; development of the system, 
154, 155; classes of feudal society, 
155,156; castles of the nobles, 156; 
sports of the nobles, 156; causes of 
its decay, 157-159, 292; extinction 
of, in different countries, 159; de- 
fects of the system, 159, 160; good 
results of the system, 160, 161. 

Field of the Cloth of Gold, 385, note. 



INDEX. 






Fire-worshipers. See Guebers. 

Five-mile act, 531. 

Flodden Field, battle of, 407. 

Florence, city, 254-256. 

Fouquier-Tinville, 616. 

France. See Franks and Table of 
Contents. Beginning of kingdom, 
303; the Capetian period, 303-309; 
the Valois period, 309-317; as- 
cendency under Louis XIV., 490- 
502; decline under Louis XV., 503. 

Francis I., k. of France, his wars with 
the Emperor Charles V., 385-390 ; 
persecutes his Protestant subjects, 
390, 39i, 459- 

Francis II., k. of France, 459. 

Francis II., emp. H. R. E., 625. 

Franco-Prussian War, 653, 654. 

Frankfort, council of, 139. 

Franks, under the Merovingians, 18- 
22; Salian F., 18; division of mon- 
archy of the, 20; conversion of, 

3°, 31- 

Frederick Barbarossa, leads third cru- 
sade, 205 ; contest with Lombard 
league, 248. 

Frederick William, the Great Elector, 

568, 569. 

Frederick III., first king of Prussia, 

5 6 9, 57°- 

Frederick Wm. I., k. of Prussia, 570- 

572- 

Frederick II., the Great, k. of Prus- 
sia, 572-576. 

Frederick Wm. IV., k. of Prussia, 672. 

Free Cities. See Towns. 

Friedland, battle of, 640. 

Froissart, 316. 

Gama, Vasco da, 352. 

Garibaldi, his early career, 688, 690, 69 1 . 



Geliraer, k. of the Vand 

Genghis Khan, 238, 239. 
• J 53- 

Genseric, k. of the Vandals, 1 

Gepidae, 22. 

Germany, conversion of, 

of the kingdom of, 322; under the 
Carolingian ,; under the 

Saxon emperors, 323-327; under 
the Franconian empei 
under the Hohenstaufen emperors, 
3 2 %-33 2 > tne Interregnum, 332, 
333; under different hou» 
237; under the Hapsburg . 
340; Imperial Chamber, 33 
Districts, 339; Thirty Year- 
473-489; end of the II. R. E., 
638; end of the kingdom 
many, 639; Confederation of the 
Rhine, 638; confederation 
669, 670; revolutions of 1830 and 
1848, 670-672; the Seven Week-,' 
War, 674-676; North German 
Union, 676; Franco-Prussian War, 

677, 678; New German Empire, 

678, 679. 

Ghent, punished by Charles Y., 389, 

440. 
Ghent, Pacification of, 44S, 449. 
Ghibellines, 328. 
Girondists, origin of name, 593; fall 

of, 602-604. 
Gladstone, prime minister, 7a . 
Godfrey of Bouillon, 191, 1 
Golden Bui!, 336. 
Gordon, General, 71 ;. 
Goths, conversion of, 29, 30. 

Grace, edict of, 472. 
Grseco-Roman civilization, 5; ele- 
ments of, 6, 7. 
( iranada, conquest ^(. 



■2S 



INDEX. 



Grand Alliance, 498. 

Great Britain. See England. 

Great Mogul Empire in India, 706, 
707. 

Greece, war of independence in, 658, 
note. 

Greek Empire. See Eastern Empire. 

Greek Fire, 96. 

Greenland, colonized by Northmen, 
121. 

Gregory. For this name see Popes. 

Grey, Lady Jane, 419, 420. 

Guadalete, river, 97. 

Guebers, 103, 104, note. 

Guelphs, 328. 

Guiscard, Robert, 170. 

Guise, Francis, duke of, 460; at the 
massacre of Vassy, 462; his death, 
463 ; Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, 
460; Henry, duke of, share in 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, 465; 
his death, 466. 

Gunpowder Plot, 506. 

Gustavus Adolphus, 480-483. 

Gustavus Vasa, 348. 

Gutenberg, John, 275. 

Guthrum, Danish leader, 126. 

Haarlem, siege of, 445, 446. 
Habeas Corpus Act, 534, 535. 
Hampden, John, 513, 514, 516. 
Hampton Court, 406. 
Hanover, house of, names of sover- 
eigns, 695, note. 
Hanseatic League, 256, 258. 
Hapsburg, house of. See Austria. 
Hardicanute, Danish k. of England, 

133- 
Harold I. (son of Godwin), k. of 

England, 171, 173. 
Harold Fairhair, k. of Norway, 121. 



Harold Hardrada, k. of Norway, 1 72, 

17 3- 
Haroun-al-Raschid, caliph, 101, 115. 
Harvey, William, 511. 
Hassan, son of Ali, 93. 
Hastings, battle of, 173. 
Hebert, executed, 613. 
Hegira, 80. 

Helvetic Republic, 629. 
Hengest, Jutish chief, 24. 
Henry I., k. of England, 178; III., 

281, 282; VII., 402-405; VIIL, 

405-417. 
Henry II., k. of France, 459; III., 

466, 467; IV., 467, 468. 
Henry the Fowler, k. of Germany, 323. 
Henry IV., emp. H. R. E., his quar- 
rel with Gregory VII., 225, 226. 
Heptarchy, Saxon, 26, note. 
Heraclius, Eastern emperor, 70, 75 ; 

death of, 92. 
Hermits, 43-45. 
Herzegovina, 665, 666. 
Hilderic, k. of Vandals, 62. 
Hohenlinden, battle of, 633. 
Hohenstaufen emperors, contest with 

popes, 226; Germany under, 328- 

33i- 

Hohenzollern, house of, 568, 570. 

Holland. See Netherlands. Made 
part of the First French Empire, 
642. 

Holy Alliance, 656, 657. 

Holy Roman Empire, relations of, to 
the papacy, 144, 145 ; restoration 
of, under Otto the Great, 324, 325 ; 
relation of, to the kingdom of Ger- 
many, 325, 326; diminished by the 
Treaty of Westphalia, 465 ; end of, 
638. 

Hong-Kong, ceded to England, 709. 



INDEX. 






Hooker, Richard, 436, note. 

Horsa, Jutish chief, 24. 

Hosain, son of Ali, 93. 

Hospitalers, order of, origin, 201 ; re- 
treat to Rhodes, 216; to Malta, 
ib. 

Hubertsburg, treaty of, 575. 

Huguenots, name, 461, note; political 
power crushed by Richelieu, 471 ; 
472; driven from France by the 
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
496, 497. 

Huguenot Wars, 457-472. 

Humanism, 268-274. 

Humbert I., k. of Italy, 693. 

Hundred Years' War, 290-296. 

Hungarians, 237, 323. 

Hungary, revolution in (1848), 673. 

Huns, 237. 

Huss, John, 336, 337. 

Hussites, 336, 337. 

Iceland, colonized by the Scandina- 
vians, 121. 
Iconoclasts, in the Netherlands, 442, 

443- 

Iconoclasts, war of the, 140, 141. 

India, British Empire in, 705-71 1; 
Afghan war of 1 838-1 842, 708, 709; 
the Sepoy Mutiny, 710, 71 1 ; govern- 
ment of, transferred to the Eng- 
lish crown, 711; progress in, ib., 
note. 

Indulgence, declaration of, 536. 

Indulgences, sale of, 366-368; form 
of, 367, note. 

Inquisition, set up by Queen Isabella 
in Spain, 319, 320; character of 
the tribunal, 374-376. 

Interdicts, 224. 

Iona, monastery of, 34, ^6. 



Ireland, Tyrone Rebellion h 

Cromwell in. 521, 52a 

of the l: 1} . 

Irene, Eastern empress, 112. 

Isabella of ( astile, 31 7 

Islam. See Mohammedanism. 

Italian city-republics, 241., 247; the 

Lombard Leagu 

sensions anion-, 249; libel 

lost, 250. 
Italian Renaissance, 268, 345, 
Italy, state during the Middli 

342, 343; as reorganized by the 

congress of Vienna, 6S1 ; 

since 1815, 682- 1 
Ivan the Terrible, czar, 549-551. 
Ivry, battle of, 467. 

Jacobins, origin of club, 592; clubs 

closed, 619. 
Jacobites, 695, note. 
James I., k. of England, 504-511 ; 

H.. 535-538. 
James IV., k. of Scotland, 407. 
Jamestown, 507. 
Janizaries, 241. 
Japan, 715. 

Jeffries, chief justice, 535, note. 
Jena, battle of, 639. 
Jerome of Prague, 3 \J. 
Jerusalem, captured by the Saracens, 

87; by Saladin, 205; by the cru- 
saders, 1 96, 

of, r<)Q; end of Latin kingdom of. 

215, 216. 
Jesuits, order of, 
Jews, admitted to English II 

Commons, 704; to corporal 

ces, ib. 

Joan of Arc, 294, 295. 
John, Don, of Austria, 



30 



INDEX. 



397, 398 > i n the Netherlands, 449; 
his death, ib. 

John, k. of England, his quarrel with 
Innocent III., 227; signs Magna 
Charta, 279-281. 

John, k. of Bohemia, 292. 

Jourdan, French general, 622, 625. 

Julian, Count, 97. 

Justinian, era of, 61, 62; reign of, 
6 1 -70; recovers Africa, 62, 63; 
recovers Italy, 64, 65 ; rebuilds 
church of St. Sophia, 66; intro- 
duces silk manufacture into Eu- 
rope, 67, 68; code of, 68; closes 
the schools of Athens, 68, 69; 
calamities of his reign, 69, 70. 

Jutes, 24, 25. 

Kars, 665. 

Khaled, Arab chief, 85. 

Khartoum, 713. 

Kleber, French marshal, 629, 630; 

his death, 633. 
Knighthood, religious orders of, 201, 

202. See Chivalry. 
Knox, John, 428, 429. 
Koran, 8^, 84. 
Kossuth, 673. 
Kublai Khan, 239. 

Labor problem, 716, 717. 
Lafayette, 586, 587, 597. 
Lambert, Simnel, 402. 
Lancaster, house of, 278, note; badge 

of, 296. See Roses, Wars of the. 
Langton, Stephen, 280. 
Languedoc, home of the Albigenses, 

306; annexed to French crown, 

307, note. 
La Rochelle, 471. 
Las Casas, 362, note. 



Latimer, 421, 422. 

Laud, William, 513, 515. 

Learning, revival of, 260-276. 

Legion of Honor, 635. 

Legnano, battle of, 248. 

Leipsic, battle of, 646. 

Leo III., the Isaurian, Eastern em- 
peror, 96, 141. 

Leonardo da Vinci, 346, note. 

Leopold, d. of Austria, arrests Rich- 
ard the Lion-hearted, 207. 

Lepanto, battle of, 397, 398. 

Letters, neglect of, in the Dark Ages, 

53- 

Lewes, battle of, 282. 

Lewis I. Debonair, Carolingian king, 
116. See Louis. 

Leyden, siege of, 446-448. 

Liberalism in England, 695-701. 

Ligurian Republic, proclaimed, 637; 
incorporated with First French 
Empire, 637. 

Literature, Grseco-Roman, influence 
of, upon Middle Ages, 7. 

Literature, Modern, beginnings of, 
267. 

Literature, English, Old English, and 
Anglo-Saxon, 37-39; under the 
Plantagenets, 299-303; of the Age 
of Elizabeth, 434-436; of the Pu- 
ritan Period, 528-530 ; of the 
Restoration, 539-540; of Queen 
Anne's Age, 546-548. 

Literature, French, beginnings of, 
313-316; under Louis XIV., 501, 
502. 

Literature, German, beginnings of, 340. 

Literature, Spanish, 321. 

Liveries, statute of, 404. 

Lodi, battle of, 624. 

Lollards, 302, 400-402. 



INDEX. 






Lombard League, 247-249. 

Lombards, Kingdom of, 22, 23; 
lands of, given to the Tope by 
Pepin, 109. 

London, great fire in, 532; plague 
of 1665, id. 

Lords, House of. See Parliament. 

Lorraine, ceded to the German Em- 
pire, 654. 

Lothar, emp. H. R. E., 116. 

Loyola, St. Ignatius, 376. 

Louis VII., k. of France, 200-204; 
IX., 214, 215; his death, 310, 31 1; 
XIII., 469; XIV., reign, 409-502; 
XV, 503, 583; XVI, 583, 584; 
his trial and execution, 600; 
XVIII, 647, 648, 649, 650. 

Louis Napoleon. See Napoleon III. 

Louis Napoleon, Prince, 712, note. 

Louis Philippe, k. of France, 651, 652. 

Lubeck, peace of, 478. 

Luneville, peace of, 634. 

Lutetia, 19. 

Luther, Martin, opposes Tetzel, 368; 
his ninety-five theses, 368, 369; 
burns the papal bull, 369; at the 
Diet of Worms, 369, 370; his 
death, 372. 

Lutzen, battle of, 483. 

Lyons, destroyed by French revolu- 
tionists, 607. 

Madrid, peace of, 386. 

Magdeburg, sack of, by Tilly, 481, 

482. 
Magellan, 353-355- 
Magenta, battle of, 689. 
Magna Charta, 279-281. 
Magyars. See Hungarians. 
Maintenon, Madame de, 496. 
Malplaquet, battle of, 499. 



Malta, 216, 

Manuel Comnenus, his treachery to 

the crusaders, 203, 204. 
Marat, his part in the "jail delivery," 

597; assassinated, (xja 
Mate. Polo, 221. 
Marengo, battle of, 633. 
Margaret, of Denmark, 
Margaret, Maid of Norway, . 
Margaret, Duchess of Pann 

442. 
Maria Theresa of Austria, 573 575. 
Marie Antoinette, wile of Louis XVI., 

her execution, 607, 608. 
Mariner's compass, 350. 
Marlborough, duke of. : 
Mary Stuart, q. of Scotland, 4J.S 

430- 
Mary Tudor, q. of England, reign, 

419-424. 
Maurice, of Saxony, 391; of Nassau, 

452- 
Maximilian, d. of Bavaria, 474. 
Maximilian, I, emp. II. k. E., 337- 

340. 
Maximilian II, emp. II. R. K, 474. 
Mayors of the palace, 21. 
Mazarin, Cardinal, 491, 492. 
Mazeppa, 561. 
Mazzini, Joseph, 1 
Mecca, 78. 

Mediaeval Age, relation to the Mod- 
ern, 5. 
Medici, Catherine de, her character, 

459, 460; her part in the m 

of St. Bartholomew, 464 

Cosmo de. 255, 256: Mary de, 

469. 
Melanchthon, Philip, ^72, n 
Mendicant Friars, origin of order of, 

227, 2 



732 



INDEX. 



Menschikof, Prince, 660, 661. 

Mercia, 26. 

Merovingians, Franks under, 18-22; 

last of, 108, 109. 
Methodism, rise of, 702, note; effects 

of, upon religious toleration, 702. 
Metternich, Prince, 672. 
Metz, 654. 
Mexico, conquest of, by Cortez, 355— 

359- 

Michael Angelo, 346, note. 

Middle Ages, defined, I ; divisions of, 
ib. 

Milan decree, 640. 

Milton, John, 529. 

Minnesingers, 340. 

Mirabeau, 586. 

Montfort, Simon de, summons the 
English commons to Parliament, 
282. 

Montenegro, 665. 

Montfort, Simon de, leader of the 
crusade against the Albigenses, 
306. 

Moawiyah, caliph, 93. 

Modern Age, divisions of, 1 ; rela- 
tion to the Mediaeval Age, 5. 

Mohammed, 78-83. 

Mohammed II., sultan of the Otto- 
mans, 242, 243. 

Mohammedanism, doctrines of, 84, 
85; spread of, 103, 104; defects 
of, 104-106. 

Moliere, 502. 

Monasteries, suppression of, in Eng- 
land by Henry VIII., 412-414. 

Monasticism, origin of, 43, 44; in 
the West, 46; advantages of, 46, 
47; evils of, 47. 

Mongols, 238-240. 

Monmouth, duke of, 535, note. 



Moors, culture of, 105 ; Kingdom of 
Granada, 318; persecuted by Philip 
II-, 397; expulsion of, by Philip 
III., 399. 

More, Thomas, 401, 414; his Utopia, 

4I5-4I7- 
Moreau, 622, 625, 633, 635. 
Morgarten Pass, battle of, 335. 
Moscow, 341, 342; burning of, 645. 
Moseilama, false prophet, 85. 
Mountainists, origin of name, 594. 
Miinzer, 371. 
Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, 

641. 
Musa, Saracen governor of Africa, 97. 
Mutiny Act, 543. 

Nana Sahib, 711, note. 

Nantes, massacres at, during French 

Revolution, 618. 
Nantes, edict of, publication of, 468; 

revocation of, 496, 497. 
Naples, annexed to kingdom of Italy, 

389, 39°- 

Napoleon III., 652-654 ; Prince 
Louis, 712, note. See Bonaparte. 

Narses, 65. 

Narva, battle of, 558, 559 

Naseby, battle of, 519. 

Nelson, English admiral, 628, 639. 

Netherlands, the country, 437; the 
people, 437, 438; under the dukes 
of Burgundy, 438; condition of, at 
the opening of the Modern Age, 
43^,439; under Charles V., 439; 
revolt of the, 441-454; pacifica- 
tion of Ghent, 448, 449; union of 
Utrecht, 449, 450; development of 
the northern province during the 
war for independence, 454-456; 
Austrian Netherlands ceded to the 



INDEX. 






French Republic, 626. See Bel- 
gium and Holland. 

Neustria, division of the Frank mon- 
archy, 20. 

New Model, 519; disbanded, 531. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 548. 

Ney, Marshal, 646, 649. 

Nice, captured by the crusaders, 192- 
194. 

Nice, truce of, 389. 

Nice, joined to France, 689. 

Nicholas I., czar, reign, 658-662. 

Nicopolis, battle of, 241. 

Niebelungen Lied, 340. 

Nihilism, 666-668. 

Nile, battle of, 628. 

Nimeguen, treaty of, 495. 

Nineveh, battle of, J3, 74. 

Normandy, origin of name, 119; 
dukes of, 170, 171; William the 
Bastard, 171. 

Normans, at home, 69; in Italy, 170; 
conquest of England, 1 71-178; 
effects of Norman Conquest on lit- 
erature, 299, 300. See Northmen. 

Northmen, 1 18-135. See Scandi- 
navians. 

Northumberland, duke of, 419. 

Northumbria, 26; receives the Chris- 
tian faith, ^2> Celtic mission to, 34. 

Norway. See Union of Calmar. 

Gates, Titus, 534. 

Odoacer, 13, 14. 

Oktai, Mongol conqueror, 239. 

Old Sarum, 697. 

Omar, second caliph, 86-92. 

Ommiades, establishment of dynasty 

of the, 93; proscription of the, 100, 

IO I ; in Spain, 1 02. 
Opium War, 709, 710. 



Orange, William of (the Silent 
sends reli< I 

4-17 : the ban and .1. 
451 ; bis death, 

< Irdeals, kinds of, 55-5 .. 

of Barthelemy in first crui , 1 

1 
Orellana, Frai note. 

( Orleans, Maid of, 2 . 
Orleans, siege of, 
Ostrogoths, kingdom of the, 1 

conquered by Belisari 
( Oswald, of Northumbria, 35. 

< )su v, of Northumbria. 
( Hhman, third caliph. 

Otto I., the ( Ireat, emp. U.K. P., 3J4 ; 

III., 327. 
Ottocar, k. of Bohemia, 334. 
Oudenarde, battle of, 499. 
Oxford, King Alfred founds a 

at, 128. 

Palatinate, war of the, 497, 49S. 
Pannonia, scat of the » Is 1 
Papacy, the, origin of its u 

authority, 109, no; its ambitions 
favored by the fall of Rom 
its authority advanced by its mis- 
sions, 139; effects upon, of the 
Iconoclastic controversy, 140-142; 
the donation of Constantine, and 
the false decretals, 142, 143; ap- 
peals to 1; 

the, to the 11. K. I ■'.. 144-1 
its height, 226; revolt of tl 
poral priii removal of 

papal chair to Avign 
great schism, 23 • still a 

spiritual th< 
temporal ; 
papal infallibility 



734 



INDEX. 



Papal States, founded, 109, no; in- 
corporated with the First French 
Empire, 642. 

Paris, treaty of (1763), 575; treaty 
of 1856, 662. 

Parish, 19. 

Parliament, English, commons first 
admitted to, 281-283; tne Long P., 
515, 523; expelled by Cromwell, 
524; the Little P., 525, 526. 

Parma, duke of (Alexander Farnese), 
449. 

Parthenopsean Republic, proclaimed, 
629; abolished, 630. 

Parthian empire, 236, 237. 

Paul I., czar, 656. 

Pavia, battle of, 386. 

Peasants' War, 370, 371. 

Peninsular Wars, 641, 642. 

Pepin of Heristal, 21. 

Pepin the Short, mentioned, 21; be- 
comes king of the Franks, 108, 
109; confers lands of the Lombards 
upon the pope, 109; his death, no. 

Persia, conquest of, by the Arabs, 88, 
89. 

Peru, conquest of, by Pizarro, 359-361. 

Peter the Great, czar, reign, 552-564; 
his boyhood, 552, 553; his first visit 
to the West, 554-556; his reforms, 
556-558; founds St. Petersburg, 
559,560; condemns his son Alexius, 
562, 563; his death, character, and 
work, 564, 565; memorials of, 565. 

Peter the Hermit, preaching of, 183, 
184, 185; leads the vanguard of 
the first crusade, 188-190; at Jeru- 
salem, 198; his return to France, 
201. 

Petition of Right, 511, 512. 

Petrarch, 269, 270. 



Philip Augustus of France, in third 
crusade, 205, 206; contest with 
Innocent III., 226, 227. 

Philip de Confines, 317, note. 

Philip Egalite, d. of Orleans, executed, 
608. 

Philip IV., the Fair, k. of France, 307. 

Philip II., k. of Spain, reign, 395— 
399; his departure from the Neth- 
erlands, 441; III., 399; V. (d. of 
Anjou), 498, 499. 

Picts, 23. 

Piedmont. See Sardinia. 

Piers Ploughman, 301, 302. 

Pilgrim Fathers, 428. 

Pilgrimage of Grace, 413. 

Pilgrimages, 1 79-181. 

Pisa, council of, 231. 

Pisa, city of, 253, 254. 

Pitt, William, the younger, 695. 

Pizarro, Francisco, 359, 360. 

Placentia, council of, 184-187. 

Plantagenet, house of, 278; history 
of P. period, 278-298. 

Plassey, battle of, 708. 

Plevna, 665. 

Poitiers, battle of, 293. 

Poland, partition of, 566, 567, 575; 
revolution in (1830), 568, 569. 

Pole, Cardinal, papal legate, 421. 

Polo, Marco, 231. 

Pompadour, Madame de, 583. 

Ponce de Leon, 356. 

Pope, Alexander, 547. 

Popes. See Papacy. Basis of tem- 
poral sovereignty, 109, no; Inno- 
cent I., 137; Gregory I., the Great, 
137, 138; Boniface III., 138, note; 
Urban II., 184-187; Gregory VII. 
(Hildebrand), his system, 222-224; 
his contest with the Emperor Henry 



INDEX. 






IV., 225, 226; his death, 226; In- 
nocent III., 226, 227; Boniface 
VIII. , 229, 230; Alexander V., 
231; Martin V., 232; Alexander 
IV., 365, note; Pius VII., made 
prisoner by Napoleon, 636, 642; 
Pius IX., 685, 692. See Tabic of 
Contents. 

Popish Plot, 533, 534. 

Portugal, conquest of, by Philip II., 

398- 

Potsdam Giants, 571. 

Pragmatic Sanction, 573. 

Prague, peace of (1866), 676. 

Prague, treaty of, 484. 

Preston Pans, battle of, 695, note. 

Pretender, the Young, 695, note. 

Pride's Purge, 519, 520. 

Printing, invention of, 274-276; in- 
troduced into England, 302, 3C3. 

Protestants, origin of name, 371. 

Protestantism. See Refoi-mation. 

Prussia, history of, previous to the 
French Revolution, 568-576; 
crushed by Napoleon, 639; Austro- 
Prussian War, 674, 675. 

Pultowa, battle of, 561. 

Puritans, origin of, 427; divided into 
Presbyterians and Independents, 
517, 518; their opposition to 
amusements, 539. 

Pyramids, battle of the, 628. 

Pyrenees, treaty of the, 491. 

Quentin, battle of, 396. 

Rabelais, 457, 458. 
Racine, 52. 
Railroads, 714, 715. 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 434, 506. 
Ramillies, battle of, 499. 



Rastadt, treaty of. 
Redistribution Pill, 700. 
Reformation, beginnings <>f the, un- 
der Luther, 

checked, 372-377; general results 
" f - ^77-3 Sl ; in England, 400-433; 
in France, 458. 

Reform Bill of 

1867, 699, 670: 7 oo. 

Renaissance. Sec Italian K. In 
Prance, 457, 458. 

Requesens, 441!. 

Restitution, edict of, 478, 470. 

Restoration of the Stuarts, .- 

Revival, age of, characteristics of the, 
2. 

Revival of learning, 260-276; in 
England, 401. 

Revolution, American, influence 
upon the French Rei 
583 ; Belgian, 652 ; French, of 
1789, 577-631; of 1S30, 651 
of 184S, 052; ( rerman, 1 I 
670; of 1S4N, 1,71, 672; Hunga- 
rian, of 1S4S, (173; Italian, ■ 
682, 684; of 1S30, 684; of 1S4S, 
685, 686; Polish, of 1N30-1S32, 
658, 659. 

Rha/.ates, 74. 

Rhodes, Hospitalers retreat to, . 
captured by the Turk-. 

Rhodes, colossus of, sold by the A: 
88. 

Richard I., the Lion-hearted. ' 
England, as a crusader, 20< 
his captivitj 

Richelieu, Cardinal, 
the foundation of t' 
Louis XI'\ 

Ridley, 421, 422. 

Rien/i, tribune of Ron; . 



"36 



INDEX. 



Right, petition of, 511, 512. 

Rights, bill of, 541, 542. 

Rights, declaration of, 538, 539. 

Robespierre, in the States-General of 
1789, 586; effects the ruin of He- 
bert and Danton, 613, 614; insti- 
tutes the worship of the Supreme 
Being, 614, 615; at the head of 
affairs, 616; his execution, 618, 619. 

Roderic, k. of Visigoths, 97, 98. 

Roland, paladin, no; song of, 315. 

Roland, Girondist leader, 593. 

Roland, Madame, execution of, 608, 
609. 

Rollo, Scandinavian chief, 134, 135. 

Roman Empire. See Eastern Em- 
pire and Holy Roman Empire. 
Mediaeval idea of, 6; restored in 
the West by Charlemagne, III, 
113, note. 

Roman law, influence of, 6; revival 
of, 59, 60. 

Roman Republic, 686. 

Romance Languages, formation of, 

51-53- 
Romance nations, 51. 
Romanof, house of, origin of the, 

55 2 - 

Rome, relation of the fall of, to 
world-history, 4; elements of civili- 
zation transmitted by, 5; cause of 
fall, 10; sacked by the troops of 
Charles V., 386; under Rienzi, 
343, 345; becomes the capital of 
the kingdom of Italy, 691, 692. 

Roncesvalles, pass of, in. 

Roses, wars of the, 296-299. 

Roumania, 665. 

Roundheads, 517. 

Rousseau, 581. 

Royal touch, superstition of, 505, 506. 



Rudolf, count of Hapsburg, ^^. 

Rudolf II., emp. H. R. E., 474. 

Ruric, Scandinavian chief, 122, 123. 

Russia, the name, 341 ; Tartar con- 
quest of, 341; rise of Muscovy, 
341, 342; freed from the yoke of 
the Mongols, 342; under Ivan the 
Terrible, 549-551; under Peter the 
Great, 552-565; reign of Catherine 
the Great, 566, 567 ; invasion of, 
by Napoleon, 645, 646; Alexander 
I. and the Holy Alliance, 656, 657; 
Russo-Turkish war of 1 828-1 829, 
658? 659; Crimean War, 660-662; 
emancipation of the serfs, 662-664; 
Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, 
664-666; Nihilism, 666-668. 

Russo-Turkish war of 1 828-1 829, 
658, 659; of 1 877-1 878, 664-666. 

Ryswick, treaty of, 498. 

Sadowa, battle of, 676. 

Said, Saracen leader, 88. 

St. Albans, battle of, 297. 

St. Anselm, 263. 

St. Anthony, 44. 

St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 464- 

466. 
St. Benedict, 45 ; rule of, 46. 
St. Bernard, 202, 203. 
St. Boniface, 39, 40. 
St. Dominic, 228. 
St. Francis, 228. 
St. Germain, treaty of, 463, 464. 
St. John, Knights of. See Hospitalers. 
St. Louis, k. of France, 214, 215, 304. 
St. Patrick, 34. 

St. Petersburg, founding of, 559, 560. 
St. Quentin, battle of, 396. 
St. Simeon Stylites, 44, 45, note. 
St. Sophia, church of, 66. 



INDEX. 






Saladin, capture of Jerusalem by, 205 ; 
antagonist of Richard the Lion- 
hearted, 206. 

Salic law, 290. 

Saracens, meaning of name, 77; their 
conquests, 85-100; their contribu- 
tions to civilization, 104, 105, note; 
preserve Greek science, 265, 266. 
See Arabs and Moors. 

Sardinia, kingdom of, its beginnings, 
687. See Victor Emmanuel. 

Sarmatians, impede march of the 
Ostrogoths, 14. 

Savonarola, Girolamo, 347. 

Savoy, house of, 687. 

Saxons. See Anglo-Saxons. Conti- 
nental Saxons, conversion of, 40; 
subjugated by Charlemagne, III. 

Scandinavians, conversion of, 40, 41 ; 
home of, 118; as pirates and colo- 
nizers, 119; causes of their migra- 
tion, 126; settlements in Scotland, 
Ireland, and the Western Isles, 120; 
colonization of Ireland and Scot- 
land, 121; Saga literature of, 121, 
122; America discovered by, 119, 
121, note; in Russia, 122, 123; at 
Constantinople, 123, 124; Danes 
in England, 124-133; Northmen 
in Gaul, 134, 135; transformation 

of, 135- 
Schleswig-Holstein, 675. 
Schmalkald, League of, 387, 391. 
Scholasticism, 261-264. 
Schoolmen, chief of the, 263; faults 

of, 263, 264. 
Scone, stone of, 286, 287. 
Scotland, early sovereigns, 284; wars 

with England, 284-290. 
Sebastopol, 661, 662. 
Self-denying ordinance, 517, 51S. 



Sempach, battle of, 335. 

Separatists, 427, 428, 507. 

Sepoy Mutiny, 710, 711. 

Septimania, 100. 

Serfs, under feudal system, 155; 

emancipation <»f, in kus>;.: 

664. 
Servia, 665. 
Settlement, act of, 546. 
Seven Weeks' War, 674-676. 
Seven Years' War, 574, 575. 
Shakespeare, William, 430, 511, note. 
Shiites, 93, note. 
Ship-money, 513, 514. 
Siberia, Conquest of, 551. 
Sicilian Vespers, 329, note. 
Sicily, kingdom of, annexed to the 

German crown, 329, 330 ; made 

part of kingdom of Italy, 689, 690. 
Sidney, Sir Philip, 436, note; 453. 
Sieyes, 586, 630. 
Sigfussen Sa^mund, 122. 
Silesia, seized by Frederick the Great, 

573- 

Silk manufacture, introduced into 
Europe, 67, 68. 

Simony, 223. 

Siroes, k. of Persia, 74. 

Slavery, African, beginning of, in the 
New World, 362, note; abolished 
in English colonies, 698. 

Slavonians, position of, at the open- 
ing of the Middle Ages, 1 1 ; raids of, 
into the Eastern Empire, 65 

Smith, Sir Sidney, 62S, 629, 704. 

Socialism, 718-720. 

Soi^sons, battle ^<i. id; vase of, 20. 

Solferino, battle of, 

Solyman the Magnificent, sultan of 
Turkey, 384, 3*7- 

Somerset, duke of, 41- 



738 



INDEX. 



Soudanese, revolt against the khe- 
dive, 713. 

Southey, 696. 

Spain, conquest of, by Saracens, 96- 
98; early history, 317; union of 
Castile and Aragon, 317, 318; con- 
quest of Granada, 318, 319; the 
Inquisition in, 319, 320; Spanish 
colonization in the New World, 
361, 362; ascendency of, under 
Charles V., and Philip II., 382- 
399; her rapid decline, 399. 

Spaniards of mixed race, 16. 

Spanish Succession, war of the, 498, 

499- 

Spenser, Edmund, 436. 

Spires, second diet of, 371. 

Spurs, battle of, 407. 

Stamford Bridge, battle of, 172, 173. 

Stanislaus Lesczinski, 560. 

Star Chamber, 513, 515. 

States-General of France, admission 
of commons to, 307; meeting of, in 
1789, 583, 584; changed into the 
National Assembly, 585, 586. 

Steamship, ocean, navigation, 714. 

Stephen II., 109. 

Stephen of Blois, 178. 

Stirling, battle of, 287. 

Stralsund, 478. 

Strasburg, seized by Louis XIV., 496. 

Strelitzes, disbanded by Peter the 
Great, 556, 557. 

Stuart, Arabella, 506. 

Stuart, Mary, Queen of Scots, 428-430. 

Stuart, house of. See Table of Con- 
tents. 

Sturleson, Snorro, 122. 

Suevi, conversion of, 30. 

Suez Canal, 712, 713. 

Sully, duke of, 469. 



Sunnites, 94, note. 

Supremacy, act of, 411, 426. 

Surajah Dowlah, 707. 

Sweden. See Calmar, Union of. 

Becomes independent of Denmark, 

348; Gustavus Adolphus, 480-483; 

Charles XII., 558-562. 
Swend, k. of Denmark, 129, 130. 
Swift, Jonathan, 547. 
Swiss guards, massacre of, 595—597. 
Swiss League, 334"33 6 - 
Syagrius, Roman governor of Gaul, 

18. 
Syria, conquest of, by Arabs, 85-88. 

Tabor, battle of, 628, note. 

Taj Mahal, 240. 

Tamerlane, 239, 240. 

Tancred, 191. 

Tarik, Arab chief, 97. 

Tartars. See Mongols and Turks. 
Origin of name, 234, note; com- 
pared with Aryans, 234-236. 

Telegraph, 714, 715. 

Tell, William, 335. 

Templars, order of the, origin, 201; 
suppressed by Philip the Fair, 216, 

2i7> 3°8, 3°9- 

Terror, Reign of, 604-619. 

Tetzel, 366-368. 

Teutonic Knights, order of, origin, 
202; end, 216. 

Teutons, character of, 8; their ca- 
pacity for civilization, 8; their love 
of personal freedom, 9; their rev- 
erence for woman, 10; conversion 
of, 28-43; their fusion with the 
Latins, 49-5 1; appropriation of 
the Roman lands by, 49, 50; codes 
of the, 54; legislation of, 54, 60; 
ordeals among, 55-59. 



INDEX. 






Thebarmes, 73. 

Theodoric, k. of the Ostrogoths', 13- ' 

15- 

Thiers, 655. 

Thirty Years' War, history of, 473- 
489. 

Tiberine Republic, proclaimed, 629; 
abolished, 630. 

Tilly, 476; at Lutter, 478; at sack of 
Madgeburg, 481, 482; his death, 
482. 

Tilsit, treaty of, 640. 

Titian, 346. 

Togrul Beg, 238. 

Tories, origin of name, 334; the 
party of conservatism, 695. 

Totila, Ostrogothic king, 65. 

Toulon, Napoleon at, 621. 

Tournament, 164, 165. 

Tours, battle of, 98-100. 

Towns, destroyed by the Teutons, 
245; revival of, 245; relations of, 
to the feudal lords, 245, 246; influ- 
ence of, 258, 259 ; mediate and 
immediate, 332, ^23- See Hanse- 
alic League and Italian City- 
republics. 

Towton Field, battle of, 297. 

Trafalgar, battle of, 639. 

Troubadours, 313, 314. 

Trouveurs, 314, 315. 

Troyes, treaty of, 294. 

Tudor, house of, England under, 
400-436. 

Tunis, taken by Charles V., 387, 388. 

Turanians. See Tartars. 

Turks, embrace Islamism, 89; the 
Seljuks, 237, 238; Ottoman T., 
empire of, founded, 240, 241 ; they 
capture Constantinople, 242, 243; 
check to their arms, 243, 244 ; they 



besiege Vienna, 3S7. Sec 
Turkish -wars. 
Tyrone Rebellion, 508. 

Uliilas, apostle of the Goths, 
Ulster, settlement of, 508. 
Uniformity, act of, 4.20, 427. 
Union <>f Calmar, 34S. 

Union, ( 'ustoms, 67 1. 

Union of England and Scotland 
(crowns), 504. 

Union of English and Scottish parlia- 
ments, 545; of the parliaments of 
Great Britain and Ireland. 

Union Jack, 504. 

Universities in the Middle Ag 
265. 

Utopia, More's, 415-417. 

Utrecht, union of, 449, 450; treaty 
of, 499. 

Valmy , battle of, 599. 
Valois, house of, 309, note ; history of 
France under Valois sovereigns, 

309-3I7- 

Valois-Orleans, house of, 457, note. 

Vandals, kingdom of the, 16-1S; 
conversion of, 30; kingdom de- 
stroyed by Justinian, 62, 63. 

Varangians, 123, 124. 

Vasco da Gama, 352, 353. 

Vassy, massacre of, 40 2. 

Vatican, council of the. 

Yaudois, 391. 

Vendee, counter-revolution in 

Venice, takes part in the fourth cru- 
sade, 20S, 200; general sketch of 
its history, 250-252; ann- 
the Austrian empire, 01^ : I 
put of the kingdom of Italy 

Verdun, treaty of, 1 !"• 



F40 



INDEX. 



Vergniaud, 604-606. 

Victor Emmanuel I., k. of Sardinia, 
682, 684; II., 686, 6S7; takes pos- 
session of Rome, 692; his death, 

693- 

Vienna, congress of, 647, 648; reor- 
ganization of Germany by, 669 ; of 
Italy, 681. 

Viking, origin of the name, 120. 

Villeins. See Serfs. 

Virginia, 434. 

Visigoths, kingdom of the, 16; con- 
quered by the Saracens, 96-98. 

Vitiges, k. of the Ostrogoths, 64. 

Voltaire, 581. 

Wafels, battle of, 335. 

Wagram, battle of, 642. 

Waiblings. See Ghibellines. 

Wales, conquest of, 283, 284 ; last 
native prince of, 283. 

Wallace, William, Scottish hero, 287. 

Wallenstein, his first appearance in 
the Thirty Years' War, 477 ; re- 
moved from his command, 479, 
480; restored, 482, 483; his as- 
sassination, 483, 484. 

Walter the Penniless, 189. 

Warbeck, Perkin, 403. 

Warsaw, grand duchy of, 640. 

Warwick, earl of, "the king-maker," 
297. 

Waterloo, battle of, 650. 

Welfs. See Guelphs. 

Wellesley, Sir Arthur (d. of Welling- 
ton), in Spain, 641 ; in India, 708. 

Wentworth, Thomas, e. of Strafford, 

5I3,5I5- 
Weregild, 55. 
Wesley, John, 702. 
Wessex, 26. 
Western Empire (Teutonic). See 



Charlemagne and the Holy Roman 
Empire. 

Westphalia, peace of, 485, 486. 

Whigs, origin of the name, 534; rep- 
resentatives of Liberalism in State 
and Church. 

Whitby, council of, 35, 36. 

Whitefield, George, 702, note. 

William I., the Conqueror, k. of 
England, 171-177 ; II., the Red, 
177; III., 541-545- 

William I., k. of Prussia, 675; be- 
comes emp. of the New German 
Empire, 678, 679. 

William I., the Silent. See Orange, 
William of. 

Winkelried, Arnold of, 335. 

Witikind, m. 

Wolseley, Lord, in Egypt, 713. 

W f olsey, Cardinal, 406, 409. 

Worcester, battle of, 522, 523. 

Wordsworth, 696. 

Worms, diet of, 369, 370. 

Wren, Sir Christopher, 533. 

Wycliffe, 302. 

Xavier, Francis, 376. 
Xeres, battle of, 97, 98. 

York, house of, 278, note; badge of, 

296. See Roses, Wars of the. 
Yuste, monastery of, 393. 

Zaandam, Peter the Great at, 554, 

555- 

Zano, Vandal leader, 18. 

Zara, 208. 

Zeno, Eastern emperor, 61. 

Zollverein (customs-union), 671. 

Zulus, 712, note. 

Zutphen, siege of, 453. 

Zwingle, Ulrich, 373. 



